Nevada is taking its first serious steps toward exploring a potential merger of its gaming and cannabis industries, as policymakers and industry leaders discuss how these two major sectors can legally co-exist. A recent panel hosted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) brought this conversation into the spotlight, as reported by Kolo.

Recreational cannabis has been legal in Nevada since 2017. By most measures legal pot has been a success, serving the public while generating nearly a billion dollars in sales and more than $130 million in tax revenue annually without causing significant societal harm.

Can the major industries of gaming and cannabis ever co-exist in Nevada? Policy experts, industry insiders and local leaders are discussing the possibilities within state law, all to give tourists and locals more consumer options. UNLV’s Cannabis Policy Institute and the UNLV International Gaming Institute recently held a panel on federal regulations, state and local laws, and interest from industry leaders in gaming and cannabis.

Nevada has held itself as the “gold standard” in gaming regulation for more than three score. And now, for nearly a decade, the state has used that model to claim its stake as a leader in cannabis regulation, too. But bringing those two together has been more like oil and water than chocolate and peanut butter.

It’s illegal to smoke or consume cannabis products in Nevada casinos, but marijuana use on the Resort Corridor is still prevalent. From the storefronts on Fremont Street advertising various types of flower to the tourists crammed into alleyways or in parking garages adjoining Strip resorts enjoying a smoke, many people aren’t aware that cannabis has been outlawed from gaming establishment properties.

The Biden Administration took steps toward decriminalizing marijuana two weeks ago when the Drug Enforcement Agency announced its intent to reclassify the drug from a Schedule I controlled substance to a Schedule III.

Leaders in Nevada’s multimillion-dollar legal cannabis industry are welcoming news that the Biden administration is working to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, but they say the devil will be in the details.

In Nevada, the first recreational marijuana dispensaries opened in July 2017. The budding business boomed and now there are 698 operational licenses across the state. However, it hasn’t been the financial windfall the cannabis industry was expecting. Easing the federal restrictions on marijuana by reclassifying it could assist businesses that said the federal tax is too much of a burden to thrive.