Veteran’s question spurred Nevada lawmaker to propose gambling age bill
The idea to lower Nevada’s legal gambling age percolated after a veteran asked Assemblyman Jim Wheeler a simple question.
The man, who had served in Afghanistan, asked Wheeler how a person could be old enough vote or fight in wars but be considered too young to legally gamble.
“I didn’t really have an answer for him,” Wheeler, R-Gardnerville, said last week.
And thus Assembly Bill 86, which seeks to lower Nevada’s legal gambling age from 21 to 18, was born.
No one in the gaming industry has raised the idea to the commission in nearly a decade, said Tony Alamo, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission, so the bill came out of left field to him.
“The industry has not come to us with any wants for dropping this. Everyone’s happy with 21 years of age,” he said.
Alamo said he wondered “if this is a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist.”
Wheeler said the goal is simply to start a dialogue on whether 21 is the correct threshold.
“I just wanted to have the conversation more than anything,” Wheeler said.
There is some precedent for allowing people under 21 to gamble in certain circumstances across the U.S.
Several casinos on Native American land in other states set the threshold at 18. Some states, like New Jersey and Louisiana, allow 18-year-olds to play bingo, but set the age restriction at 21 for other gambling games such as slot machines, poker and blackjack.
But dropping the age to 18 on all gambling in Nevada would present a list of issues, Alamo said — most notably the interaction between gambling and alcohol.
With both gambling and drinking having the same 21-year-old threshold, casino workers do not have to verify the person sitting at a poker table is old enough to order a drink, Alamo said. Allowing 18-year-olds to sit down at a slot machine or poker table could get burdensome for workers who would likely have to ask for ID every time someone at gaming table orders a drink, he added.
Wheeler agreed that those interactions “could become a problem,” but argued that servers should be checking IDs in casinos anyway.
Contact reporter Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4683. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.
