LAS VEGAS (AP) – Nevada Democrats are betting the time is right for the nation’s No. 1 gambling state to create a lottery, despite a prohibition in the state constitution dating back to 1864.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins said Friday that the money is needed to fund education. But lottery proposals have died 26 times in the Legislature since 1970 in the face of opposition from Nevada’s powerful gambling interests, which have maintained that the state should not compete with its top industry.

“The government doesn’t go into the car business or compete with supermarkets,” said Bill Bible, president of the Nevada Resort Association, which represents many of the state’s major hotel-casinos.

Legislators would have to approve a lottery and voters would have to support the idea twice to change the constitution. Democrats said it could be put before voters in 2008.

“The size of the state … the perspective in the state … the state of our educational system makes it the right time,” Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley said.

Nevada’s schools tend to perform below the national average in many surveys and the state ranks 48th in overall education spending.

Bible said his association has no official position on a lottery, but many members believe that Nevada’s reliance on gambling and tourism makes it different from the District of Columbia and 39 states that have lotteries. Democratic officials said 24 of those states dedicate at least some lottery money to schools.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, a Republican, said he wasn’t opposed to a lottery but noted the issue has made little progress in the past.

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