The Nevada Gaming Commission has a message for casinos that are considering incorporating regulated marijuana into their suite of services and that message is, “Marijuana has no place in Nevada casinos.”
Nevada is one of a handful of US States that have legalized recreational marijuana, which is still illegal under US Federal law. The Silver State also happens to be the first state to legalize marijuana that also has a significant gambling industry and that’s where the Nevada Gaming Commission comes into the picture.
At a meeting last week, Nevada’s top gaming regulators made their stance on legal marijuana quite clear with Commission Chairman Tony Alamo telling an Associated Press reporter:
On one hand you have the gaming industry and on the other hand you have the marijuana industry … The two shall not meet.
The Nevada Gaming Commission also discussed the possibility of allowing third party vendors to peddle marijuana in casinos. After more than an hour of discussion, that idea was shot down, too.
Marijuana is such a taboo subject for Nevada’s regulated casino industry that the Gaming Commission also recommended that casinos avoid hosting marijuana industry events, such as conventions, at their properties.
That idea didn’t sit well with marijuana industry entrepreneur CEO Cassandra Farrington who defended weed industry conventions on Leafly.com saying:
We are a business-to-business trade show like World of Concrete or many other conventions that come through Las Vegas. The people who exhibit at our shows are grow light manufacturers, seed-to-sale software producers, packaging experts, lawyers and accountants. There is no activated product for sale on the show floor at all.
And given the huge amounts of money to be made on conventions of all shapes and sizes, it seems unlikely that Nevada casinos will take this particular piece of advice. As for weed on the casino floor – it doesn’t look like that will happen any time soon.