State

Effort to lower Nevada's gambling age appears dead

Thursday, November 13, 2008 10:55 PM CST

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - A proposal to lower Nevada's gambling age to 18 appeared dead Thursday, after the top Democrats in the Legislature said they opposed the idea and an aide said Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons wouldn't support it.

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford and Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley panned the idea Wednesday, after Gaming Control Board Chairman Dennis Neilander told a questioner at a conference last week that he would take the suggestion to the state Legislature.

Neilander said he was neither for nor against lowering the gambling age from 21 to 18, but would take the idea to the 2009 Legislature. Neilander later said lowering the gambling age would be difficult to enforce.

Gibbons spokesman Ben Kieckhefer called the suggestion unexpected, and said the governor could not support it.

Horsford told the Las Vegas Review-Journal he would oppose changing the gambling age, and added that he didn't see much support for the move.

‘‘I don't think there is a lot of appetite to consider it at this point,'' he said.

Buckley said she didn't have a ‘‘strong interest'' in the issue.

‘‘Of course, there is the argument that if you can vote or go to war at 18, you should be allowed to gamble,'' she said.