LETTER: Raising the Nevada gaming tax has risks

I am usually all-aboard with Victor Joecks’ commentaries. However, after reading his Aug. 28 column, I didn’t quite get there.

The idea of raising the state gaming tax so as to lower the sales tax needs a second look. Yes, Nevada has the lowest gaming tax in the world at 6.75 percent. But it is for this reason that Nevada has always prospered and foreign money continues to invest in Las Vegas resorts. Gambling failures, such as those incurred in Atlantic City and Macao, were in large part due to a gaming tax that was as high as 20 percent

I see a gasoline tax increase as a much better offset against a lowering of the sales tax. You can buy an electric car, take public transportation or do ride-sharing to avoid the gasoline tax. But what you buy and pay sales tax on is pretty much set for most of us.

The revenue Nevada gets from gaming is sort of a sacred cow in that it keeps us from having a state income tax. We can’t take any chances in a diminution of gaming revenue because we overburdened the industry. We do not want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.