The recreational consumption of marijuana has been legal in Nevada for more than a year, but the state’s leading industry has never been comfortable with it.
Late last month, the Nevada Resort Association gave voice to gaming’s concerns in a letter to the city of Las Vegas urging it to hold off on an ordinance to allow smoking lounges.
Virginia Valentine, who heads the casinos’ principal state lobbying group, wrote that the lounges would create “unique challenges” for those gambling venues located nearby.
“Recreational marijuana has only been legal in Nevada since July 1, 2017, and it still relatively new in other states,” she stated. “Consequently, communities have little or no experience with the impacts of lounges on the communities or surrounding businesses.”
The letter, addressed to Mayor Carolyn Goodman and copied to members of City Council, City Manager Scott Adams and Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, requests the delay “until further information is available from other jurisdictions”.
Councilman Bob Coffin, who has led the effort to move forward with the lounges𑁋which would also sell food and alcohol — said the NRA’s opposition has been known for some time and that Tuesday’s letter “won’t slow us down”.
He said the city has empaneled an advisory committee to examine the issue, and it is expected to come before City Council in late October or early November.
The Resort Association’s position notwithstanding, it appears the gaming industry isn’t entirely united in opposition to the lounges. Some industry leaders, in fact, have pushed for them as safe havens that will help keep pot smoking out of their properties.
Speaking last year as a member of a Clark County marijuana advisory panel, Andy Abboud, a senior vice president with Las Vegas Sands, said the lounges would reduce the number of tourists who smuggle marijuana into their hotel rooms and discreetly use it in prohibited places. The panel pushed for consumption lounges off the Strip.
Riana Durrett, the Nevada Dispensary Association’s executive director, said the state’s leading pot advocacy organization plans to stay neutral on the ordinance.
Support for lounges among its 50 members “really varies by dispensary and by owner,” Durrett said. “The association doesn’t take a stance on it.”
