Back when the medical marijuana businesses began to flourish, Nevada’s casino industry was told to avoid any association with the new industry. But with licensed cannabis dispensaries popping up on the Strip and the resort corridor, the lines between cannabis and gaming are blurring.
It’s been 11 years since former Gaming Control Board member Terry Johnson authored an industry notice instructing Nevada gaming license-holders and prospective applicants to stay away from the fledgling medical marijuana business because of federal enforcement of anti-drug laws.
The edict is still in effect, but much has changed surrounding cannabis, which was legalized by state voters in 2016 for recreational use. Nevada is one of 24 states that have relaxed marijuana laws.
However, a relationship between cannabis and the state’s gaming industry remains tenuous, given the federal government still classifies cannabis as a Schedule 1 controlled substance, which makes it illegal to possess, use, buy, sell or cultivate.
Johnson, now an adjunct professor at UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law, suggested that it might be time to revisit his decade-old industry notice.
“I don’t see why you wouldn’t pull out that memo and say, ‘Does this even matter now?’” Johnson said Monday, following a panel discussion on cannabis and gaming hosted by UNLV’s Cannabis Policy Institute.
In retrospect, Johnson said he might have suggested the control board hold a public hearing with the Nevada Gaming Commission to discuss “what the policy should look like.”
A resort customer is still prohibited from consuming cannabis inside a licensed gaming property. Gaming operators are advised to stay clear of any association with the cannabis industry.
But the lines separating gaming and cannabis are increasingly blurred.
According to the state’s Cannabis Compliance Board (CCB), nearly a half-dozen licensed dispensaries carry a Las Vegas Boulevard address. More than a dozen other locations are within close proximity to the Strip. The CCB lists more than 100 dispensaries statewide.
The smell of cannabis smoke is often detected inside Strip resort self-parking garages. Along northbound Interstate 15, visitors are met with billboards advertising cannabis dispensaries with messages to “enhance your Vegas experience.”
Two other panelists, Fifth Street Gaming co-founder Seth Schorr and lobbyist David Goldwater, who owns Inyo Fine Cannabis Dispensary in Las Vegas, agreed that the red line separating cannabis and gaming has often been blurred — a clear sign of market demand often met by the illegal market.
Efforts have been made to stem the illegal market. The CCB launched a billboard campaign this month, encouraging locals and tourists to purchase cannabis products from licensed dispensaries, as opposed to the illegal market, and a bill was introduced (but died) this legislative session to mandate daily room cleaning in hotels and casinos to address the illicit cannabis market.
Goldwater said it made sense a decade ago to be cautious about any relationship between gaming and cannabis. But with the legal cannabis industry losing out on sales to the illegal market, the moment exists “for the gaming world and the cannabis world to have conversations. Opportunities are being lost.”
Former Nevada Gaming Control Board member Terry Johnson speaks at a seminar on May 19, 2025, at UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law during a Cannabis Policy Institute seminar. (Howard Stutz/The Nevada Independent)
Johnson said the industry notice was the correct approach in 2014 because so much was unknown about where cannabis legalization was headed. Shortly after it was published, the control board sanctioned a slot route operator for having ties to medical marijuana.
Given that cannabis and gaming coexist in states outside of Nevada, Johnson said now might be the right time to revisit the state’s policy.
“Looking back as a former regulator, we didn’t have the types of disruptions or negative publicity, or any adverse events related to cannabis and gaming,” Johnson said. “That’s a good sign. Maybe that’s a reflection of trying to recalibrate the regulatory position accordingly.”
Schorr, whose company operates five casinos, including the Downtown Grand, said Las Vegas has just “scratched the surface” of a cannabis tourism market. Las Vegas has just two cannabis consumption lounges — Dazed! at Planet 13 and Sky High, which is part of the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe’s NuWu Cannabis Marketplace.
“If the gaming industry were able to collaborate with the cannabis industry, I think it would look like an entirely different world,” Schorr said. “I think that if the laws allowed it, there would be certain properties that partner with certain cannabis operators, and they would create experiences for the market. I don’t know that every single casino would embrace this.”
Circa Resort and Casino CEO Derek Stevens speaks during a keynote interview at the Global Gaming Expo on Oct. 11, 2022. (Jeff Scheid/Nevada Independent)
Stevens says his next downtown casino project is several years down the road
Derek Stevens suggested that Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley got a little ahead of herself when she announced during her recent State of the City address that the downtown casino operator and CEO was ready to build a second Circa Casino Resort on a parcel he has owned in Symphony Park since 2017.
“I can tell you right now that we’re a couple of years out from even starting the design work for the site,” Stevens said last week during a celebration he hosted in the 60th-floor Legacy Club at Circa in celebration of Las Vegas’ 120th birthday.
“I can also say whatever we build won’t be called Circa,” said Stevens, who doesn’t mind the attention.
For now, the 7-acre site behind Circa’s Garage Mahal is being used as a construction lot for the Cello residential tower in Symphony Park, which is part of the 600 residential units and 400 hotel rooms for the area.
“We want to be a good neighbor, and it helps the other projects,” Stevens said. “We have the last site that is zoned for gaming, but we’re going to take our time to consider our plans.
Circa is partly responsible for downtown’s gaming boom, which has seen record years for casino revenue since the pandemic, topping out at $931.2 million in 2024. Downtown gaming revenue is up almost 3 percent through the first three months of 2025.
Stevens, who also owns the Golden Gate and D Las Vegas along Fremont Street, said he still has ideas in mind for Circa, which opened in 2020 as the first ground-up casino built downtown since 1980.
Last year, he added 106 rooms and suites to Circa on four floors that had been held out to gauge customers’ response to the property’s room options. Circa now has 618 rooms and suites, 20 percent more than when it opened.
Formula One fans watch the Las Vegas Grand Prix from on top of vehicles in the Ellis Island Casino & Brewery parking lot on Nov. 23, 2024. (Jeff Scheid/The Nevada Independent)
Ellis Island, F1 patch up their differences and will partner on the 2025 race
Operators of the Ellis Island Hotel and Casino and the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix settled their legal differences stemming from the 2023 race. The off-Strip casino is now an official venue for the November 2025 event.
Ellis Island Vice President of Operations Annmarie Ellis wrote in a text message that details of the partnership, such as viewing experiences and hotel packages for the race, are still being determined.
Ellis Island is on Koval Lane along the initial straightaway coming out of the fourth turn for the 3.8-mile race circuit. The resort filed a lawsuit last May against Formula One over lost revenue caused by road closures and access issues. The case was dismissed four months later.
During the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, Ellis Island had a grandstand along Koval for guests to view the race. Special hotel room packages were offered to F1 fans.
Last year, Ellis Island did not have grandstand seating but hosted a watch party inside the casino’s Front Yard restaurant. However, hotel guests who parked in spaces along Koval Lane sat atop their vehicles and watched the F1 racers speed by along the straightaway.
“Over the last two years, we have committed to working with the community and local businesses to ensure they are part of the race week excitement,” Las Vegas Grand Prix CEO Emily Prazer said in a statement.
A part of the partnership, Ellis Island will also have use of the Grand Prix Plaza area for the annual Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation of Nevada Halloween Bash, an event the Ellis Family has long supported.
💲 Wynn Resorts is sitting on $1B in unused Las Vegas Strip property — Clark Schultz, Seeking Alpha
The former Frontier Hotel site, which Wynn bought in 2017 for $336 million, has nearly tripled in value due to the scarcity of available Strip real estate.
✈️ U.S. lost business travelers in April as economic anxiety and border detentions cooled demand — Dee-Ann Durbin, The Associated Press
One Canadian traveler, who attends trade shows in Atlanta and Las Vegas, said concerns about crossing the border will keep him from making those trips.
A rendering of the resort pool area at the $5.1 billion Wynn Al Marjan in the UAE emirate of Ras Al Khaimah. (Wynn Resorts/courtesy)
Wynn drops out of the New York City casino process
Wynn Resorts joined Las Vegas Sands in departing New York City’s drawn-out casino legalization process. In a statement Monday, the company said it could find a better use for its funds “than investing in an area in which we, or any casino operator, will face years of persistent opposition despite our willingness to employ 5,000 New Yorkers.”
Wynn had been focused on developing a resort in partnership with New York-based Related Companies on a site in the Hudson Yards West redevelopment area, but grew frustrated with the rezoning process.
Wynn is developing Wynn Al Marjan, a casino and resort on a man-made island in Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates. The project now has a price tag of $5.1 billion and is expected to open in 2017.
In April, Las Vegas Sands withdrew its plans for a New York casino-resort, citing the state’s prospective legalization of online gaming would slice into potential revenue from the casino.
In this week’s Indy Gaming, discussion surrounds the relevance of an 11-year-old cannabis-casino memorandum. Also, Stevens quiets new resort speculation. Read More
