Goodman adds lottery to his list of revenue ideas

Diana Sahagun

Monday, March 11, 2002 | 9:19 a.m.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is betting some of the city's time on a state lottery, an idea that failed in the last Legislature.

"I think we need it," Goodman said. "I don't think anyone would be hurt by it. Why shouldn't we have it? We're the gaming capital of the world."

Goodman, looking for extra revenue for the city, has asked staff members to gather information on a possible Nevada lottery. The request follows the mayor's most recent pitches: to allow ads on city buildings, to sell the city's seal to an Internet casino and to serve as a spokesman for a brand of gin, with the fee going into city coffers.

Assemblywoman Kathy McClain, D-Las Vegas, proposed a state lottery last May, during the 2001 Legislature. Hollywood film producer and potential gubernatorial candidate Aaron Russo also proposed a Nevada lottery to help pay for prescription drugs for seniors.

McClain's proposal died in the Senate, and Russo advertised his plan on television, but it also failed.

The Governor's Task Force on Taxes, which is expected in November to offer solutions to the state's revenue shortfall, also is considering a lottery among many ways to raise money for the state.

Goodman was scheduled to meet today with McClain, who had estimated the state could dole out $65 million annually for education and senior citizens if a lottery were approved.

"It's one more form of revenue we're letting slip through our fingers," she said. "We need the revenue."

Thirty-eight states have a lottery, as do the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries website.

McClain said she plans to reintroduce the bill in the 2003 legislative session and said the city's potential backing could help her cause. The resolution, which would amend the state Constitution, would have to be approved by the Legislature in 2003 and 2005. Voters would also have to approve the measure.

McClain proposes to set up a lottery by depositing 50 percent of the net proceeds into a trust fund for a period of 20 years. That money, plus interest, would be used as a safeguard should the lottery run into financial trouble. The remaining 50 percent of the net proceeds would be available for state programs, likely those involving education and senior citizens.

"We have lots of tourism, and I'm sure there are a lot of people who would buy a lottery ticket," she said. "I don't think it's going to be a bad thing for Nevada."

Jerry Freeman, who runs the Nipton Trading Post in California -- a state with a lottery -- said a lottery won't necessarily succeed in Nevada because the state's population base pales in comparison to larger states.

"You need tens of millions of people to play that game in order to get the (jackpot) numbers up," Freeman said. "Nevada just doesn't have the population.

"How is Nevada going to get up to (a) $200 million jackpot? That's the only thing that will bring them out of their homes."

Massachusetts, however, with a population of just 6.3 million, led the United States in fiscal 2000 with lottery sales of about $3.7 billion. Nevada's population is about 2 million but is the fastest growing in the nation.