Nevada lottery? Don’t bet on it

A bill in the upcoming legislative session would amend the Nevada Constitution to allow the operation of a state lottery. Proceeds would support public education.

Not surprisingly, Senate Joint Resolution 1 will be soundly rejected. Dozens of lottery proposals in the last 20 legislative sessions have met the same fate.

Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed budget seeks a 9 percent cut in spending on K-12 education and a 22 percent cut in higher education costs. Most lawmakers still won’t consider a lottery to enhance revenues.

The casino industry — not just locals giants Boyd Gaming Corp. and Station Casinos — opposes a lottery.

The argument? A dollar spent on a lottery ticket might take away a dollar that could be gambled at a casino.

In a way, however, Nevada already has a lottery. It’s called Megabucks.

Megabucks, introduced in 1986 by International Game Technology, was the first slot machine system to link games between casinos throughout Nevada. A portion of every dollar gambled on a Megabucks machine is directed toward a progressive jackpot pool that starts at $10 million.

Megabucks is responsible for the state’s largest-ever slot jackpot of $39.7 million, won at Excalibur in 2003.

One player hit Megabucks twice, for $4.6 million in 1989 and $21.1 million in 2005. An Aria customer won almost $12.8 million on Megabucks 10 days ago.

IGT doesn’t provide figures, but almost every large and small casino throughout Nevada are linked through Megabucks.

The slot machines are responsible for about $2.5 billion of the $4.4 billion the IGT-branded MegaJackpots slot machines have awarded in more than two decades.

IGT and casinos share in the gaming revenues from the slot machines. Casinos collect almost three-quarters of the total amount.

Both IGT and casino operators pay a tax of 6.75 percent on the gaming revenue. Neither the casino nor IGT pay additional fees or taxes on Megabucks, although casinos pay quarterly and annual fees for each slot machine.

A lottery would provide additional tax dollars above the gaming tax, but there isn’t much discussion about SJR1. Many legislators who supported past lottery efforts have been term-limited out of office.

How popular is a lottery? Ask Herbst Gaming. The company owns a convenience store in Primm on the California side of the Nevada border. When the multistate Mega Millions jackpot hit $380 million this month, hundreds of people waited up to 2½ hours at the store to buy lottery tickets.

Herbst collects about 6 percent from the sale of each lottery ticket sold there.

Howard Stutz’s Inside Gaming column appears Sundays. He can be reached at hstutz@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3871. He blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/stutz.