Casino News – NV Lottery Proposal, Moneymaker Closes Poker Room, Court Dismisses WA Lawsuit

This week’s casino news starts off in Nevada, where the state is finally considering lottery gaming. Is this the time it will finally get passed?

Nevada Considering New Proposal For State Lottery

Even with all of the gaming allowed in Nevada, surprisingly, it is one of just five states across the entire United States that doesn’t currently offer a state lottery. That might change in the coming months, though.

It was reported this week that Nevada could be planning a new proposal to the Nevada Constitution, which would open the door for a lottery to take place. On top of that, voters could be given the final word on whether they want one or not. Up to this point, only Nevada, Hawaii, Utah, Alabama, and Alaska don’t have state lotteries.

The current proposal changes that would be needed to make this happen haven’t been revealed yet. It will take some convincing considering that the state has long been against a lottery due to concerns for competition when it comes to gambling earnings.

Cameron Miller, the Democratic assemblyman who’s pushing this new proposal, said, “Right now, we are sending millions of dollars across the border to neighboring states. It is time to fully invest in Nevadans and pass this constitutional amendment.”

That’s a concern as residents in the state still want to play the lottery, but are just finding a different place to do it. Instead, the state could legalize and then collect tax dollars from the winnings.

Chris Moneymaker Closes Down Kentucky Poker Room

Former World Series of Poker champion Chris Moneymaker has announced that one of his poker rooms is shutting down. Moneymaker recently opened up the Moneymaker’s Social Club located in Kentucky near the border in a town with 25,000 residents in it. It was reported that the property wasn’t charging residents a traditional rake and had filed to become a business back in June.

Some reports claim that Moneymaker is shutting down the poker room due to racking up legal threats from other authorities in the area. Other rumors suggest that it just wasn’t as successful as he anticipated. The place had originally received approval from Sam Clymer, the County Attorney, but he no longer holds that position anymore. When Cade Foster replaced Clymer at the position, he reversed the local jurisdiction’s stance on poker rooms.

One headwind for Moneymaker – in the case that he were to try and keep the room open – is that he could have been hit with gambling-related charges. The only option that the room had left was to strike a deal with the town in order to avoid any criminal charges. It looks like the easier thing to do is to just close up shop.

Court Dismisses Lawsuit Going Against Washington Tribal Sports Gaming

A major lawsuit that challenging tribal sports gaming in Washington has just been dismissed. The lawsuit was going against the state’s law that currently allows people to place sports wagers while also limiting the number of bets placed at tribal nations casinos. Maverick Gaming was the company that sent out this suit, but the courts ruled that there wasn’t enough to take action on the matter.

Back in October 2022, there was a motion to dismiss the case by Shoalwater Bay Tribe. Shortly after they requested this, another 17 tribes supported the dismissal on top of the federal government and the Attorney General’s office. Simply put, there weren’t many people on Maverick’s side on this issue.

Maverick wanted to essentially undermine the sovereignty that tribes have held onto for years considering their right to self-determination when it comes to gaming. There just wasn’t any way that Maverick’s argument could have prevailed given the lasting impact it would have had moving forward by altering rules and regulations that have been in place for years.

This isn’t the first time that tribal gaming has been challenged and not likely the last, either.