Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Who needs a silly lottery anyway?

Less than three years ago I wrote to the Las Vegas Sun and proposed that the time for a lottery in Nevada had finally come. I opined that such a system could be set up in a symbiotic relationship with gaming, allowing casinos to profit from lottery sales. I surmised that 50 percent of the money would go back to the lottery for prizes and expenses; 40 percent would fund education and 10 percent would go to the rainy-day fund.

My, how times have changed. How knowledgeable it was of our elected representatives, from the one state to truly embrace gambling, to mostly ignore a proven gaming proposal. How the Legislature back then knew that almost three years later we would not be in need of such a silly idea, and all the money it produces, is remarkable.

How is it they had the foresight to realize that our state coffers would today be overflowing with extra money and that local property taxes would be continuing their nonstop meteoric ride along with home values? How the common voter could think that the great state of Nevada would ever slash K-12 school budgets, cut higher education classes, lay off teachers and increase the number of students per class due to a budget shortfall is laughable.

I guess Nevada has plenty of money to fund its schools without a lottery; we just do it in a more economical way. I should have realized that a lottery would harm the true cash-cow casinos that are bringing in all that extra money these days to our overstuffed economy.

It looks like this year’s group of state lawmakers is way ahead of me again as I see most of them won’t consider a proposed state lottery to help fund education. I guess they figure who needs it — education, that is.

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