Let’s keep the lottery money in Nevada

To the editor:

I’m a senior citizen who drove to Primm on March 28 to buy a lottery ticket. I waited in line for three hours and 10 minutes. The line was so long it wrapped around the store three times and then again inside for three more turns.

The news media were filming and hearing people complain that Nevada does not have a lottery. Some people in line were in wheelchairs. Others with obvious physical disabilities were also standing in line for the chance to buy a ticket. There were two occasions during that three-hour wait that paramedics were called to the scene to provide assistance. It shouldn’t have to be that way.

After returning home, I watched a newscast in which they interviewed one of MGM’s big wigs. He said casinos bring in billions of dollars a year — much more than a lottery. But we can have both. I gamble in the casinos, but I also take a flyer on lottery tickets, too.

MGM’s argument is shallow and lame. There are at least 40 states in our country that have lotteries, and many of those states also have casino gambling. Yet it doesn’t deter people from gambling in their state’s casinos and still coming to Las Vegas.

It’s clear the lawmakers in Nevada are in bed with the casino industry. But it’s time for them to do what’s right. Polls show that 98 percent of Nevadans want a lottery like Mega Millions and Powerball here. It will not take much to hook into those existing systems, and the tickets could also be sold in the casinos as well as all the convenience stores.

Folks, tens of thousands, if not millions of dollars are going to the California schools and roads courtesy of Nevadans. We need those millions here. Our state is hurting. I suggest that the people of Nevada take to the streets with peaceful demands in Carson City and other places demanding a lottery here. It’s time to stop forcing people drive to another state and experience a medical incident while standing in a three-hour line.

BRADLEY KUHNS

LAS VEGAS

To the editor:

All the money Nevadans spend in California and Arizona for lottery tickets could be kept here. Casinos are worried about lottery money taking away from their bottom lines. So let casinos sell tickets for a commission — people coming to casinos to buy tickets would gamble.

Let’s keep the money here.

LEON GRACZYK

LAS VEGAS