Marijuana And Gambling Doesn’t Exactly Feel Like A Profitable Combination

In a case of “be careful what you wish for,” I’m going to go ahead and caution Seth Schorr, the CEO of Fifth Street Gaming, and say this: Eh, maybe lay off the weed.

Schorr was at a panel discussion this week hosted by the Cannabis Policy Institute and International Gaming Institute on the campus of the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and he said that Sin City laws should be changed to allow casinos to have cannabis lounges and to make it legal for cannabis delivery to hotels.

“Now it’s been a decade and the question is, is it time we push the envelope?” Schorr said, according to a CDC Gaming report. “In Las Vegas, we’re competing against other jurisdictions. Online gaming wasn’t a thing 10 years ago. Visitation is down in Las Vegas. We need every tool in the toolbox as a city to drive visitation. Maybe 10 years ago, you had to be conservative, but today it’s got to be on the table.”

Recreational use of marijuana was legalized in Nevada 10 years ago, but, as the article points out, the laws in and around Vegas casinos are pretty strict. For instance, there is a mandated 1,500-foot separation between a cannabis business and a casino, and Clark County doesn’t allow legal cannabis operators to make deliveries to the Strip. 

The reason for the caution, apparently, is because Mary Jane is still illegal at the federal level, and casino operators don’t want to tempt fate — and federal banking laws — by inviting it to the Strip.

“I think there is a market, but you don’t know until you try it,” Schorr said on the panel discussion.

Yeah … I mean, sure, I suppose some people would like it, but … uh … well, can I be frank for a moment? 

The partaker’s point

I don’t know about you, but when I partake — by the way, it’s a scientific fact that only marijuana aficionados use the word “partake” — pretty much the absolute last thing I want to do is gamble. 

Put a few beers in me? I want to gamble.

Put me on the casino floor, straight-up sober? I want to gamble.

Give me some, shall we say, party drugs (in my youth)? Yeah, I want to gamble.

Give me a 10 mg gummy? I want to put my head in my wife’s lap while she strokes my hair and we binge-watch The Four Seasons on Netflix.

Maybe I’m old, maybe I’m not hip, maybe today’s marijuana hits me differently than when I was younger, but for real: When I’m high, if I think about gambling, I usually think, “Man, gambling is pretty dumb. Kind of a waste of time, and probably money. Do we have any ice cream left? And pretzels. I could eat some pretzels. Why am I in the kitchen? Oh yeah. Ice cream.”

“People go on vacation and want to do the vices,” Schorr said. “We allow them to drink and gamble and when they take a vacation some want to smoke marijuana. Las Vegas is about creating an experience that’s better than the one you can have at home. As other jurisdictions find a way to introduce this into their experience, it’s a handicap.”

I guess, but I’m also guessing people who want to get high in Vegas find a way. For instance, the Reef Dispensary is a mile from the Venetian. (I used Google Maps, that’s not from prior experience.)

While I suppose having cannabis lounges inside a casino-hotel would be cool, I think most people — and again, I may be showing my age — but I think most people don’t need a lounge to smoke a joint in. Hotel rooms with a towel under the door and someone fanning the fire alarm works just fine. As do sidewalks. And the areas behind dumpsters. Plus, uh … vapes and gummies and edibles and whatever else is out there these days.

And, again, I’m not convinced allowing unfettered access to weed would be a boon to the casinos. I just don’t feel getting high and gambling are the peanut butter and chocolate Schorr may think they are.

Of course, it is pretty silly that you can gamble all day, booze it up until your liver craps out, and legally put a tiger in your bathroom while in Vegas, but everyone gets persnickety about a little grass.

So to Schorr and everyone else, I say this: Go ahead, get your cannabis lounges, live it up. Just don’t be surprised if, instead of blowing $1,000 at the craps table, I just hit up the mini-fridge for the $15 Toblerone.