Nevada

Indy Environment: Mountain bike trails wheeling in the tourism for rural Nevada – Carson Now

Published

1 year ago

November 29, 2024

Indy Environment: Mountain bike trails wheeling in the tourism for rural Nevada – Carson Now

by Amy Alonzo

“The best outdoor recreation in the state” is a slogan some could argue belongs to western Nevada’s portion of Lake Tahoe or Southern Nevada’s Red Rock Conservation Area.

But according to the city of Ely, that title belongs to the tiny eastern Nevada city, home to one of the oldest mountain bike races of its kind in the United States and gateway to the state’s only national park.

Whether the region’s recreation is the best can be debated, but there is no question that Ely and White Pine County have directed substantial funding and effort toward growing tourism in the city that sits near the end of the Loneliest Road in America and the Utah border, roughly four hours from the closest major metropolitan area.

Investing in tourism in rural communities brings in new money, said Kyle Horvath, director of tourism for the White Pine County Tourism and Recreation Board. Without that influx of new money “you’re just shuffling the same money throughout the community and there’s not really any growth.”

In Ely, that growth hinges on a variety of attractions — the city’s railway museum for history buffs, festivals for those seeking a relaxing small-town escape, and, more and more, those seeking out Ely’s mountain biking trails.

“It’s been like this underground cult classic mountain biking destination, but nobody knew about it because they weren’t marketing it,” said Horvath, who moved to Ely in 2017 for the job, as well as the accessibility to the area’s mountains and trails.

The area boasts 51 miles of dedicated singletrack trails specifically designed for cyclists — with work underway to expand that to more than 100 miles. While mountain biking trails can be used by hikers, equestrians and others, they are designed specifically with cycling in mind, with banked turns and added features, often not exceeding a maximum steepness.

Mountain biking in the Ely area. (White Pine County Tourism and Recreation/Courtesy)

Investing in outdoor recreation is a model other rural Nevada communities are leaning into as well.

Caliente, a city of roughly 1,100 people in Lincoln County, is touting itself as “the hottest new biking destination in the West.”

The city also has more than 50 miles of purpose-built singletrack, noting it has “something for every rider — and we’re still building!”

The Lincoln County trails are an investment in the county’s excellent outdoor recreation opportunities that, for decades, were undiscovered because of a lack of infrastructure, said Marcia Hurd, executive director of the Lincoln County Authority of Tourism. Mountain bike trails allow non-locals the opportunity to explore those assets, she said, while attracting people to the county’s restaurants, hotels and stores.

The trails aren’t only a way to attract visitors; they’re a way to build an economic buffer in areas that struggle to generate revenue.

“Tourism kind of helps bust-proof communities,” Horvath said. “Even if one industry were to downturn, there’s still that safety net of tourism if you play it right.”

Mountain biking in the Ely area. (White Pine County Tourism and Recreation/Courtesy)

Putting tourism money back into the community

Ely, like many Nevada cities and towns, has its roots in mining.

The Robinson Mine, for decades one of the region’s largest employers, can trace its historyback to 1867.

So when the Robinson Mine shuttered in 1978, “Ely was told, ‘you’re the next ghost town in the making,’” Horvath said.

But the city stayed afloat, the mine reopened in 2004, and tourism emerged as a primary economic driver in the city.

Now, the push is to take it to “the whole next level,” Horvath said.

White Pine County Tourism and Recreation pours 51 percent of the room tax it collects from visitors directly back into events and recreational infrastructure “supporting things that attract tourists,” Horvath said.

In 2021, $1.1 million was reinvested in tourism-driven attractions and events.

“We’re putting that tourism money back into the community,” he said. “You can’t compete with Tahoe. But the quality of our recreation facilities — that’s what we mean by best in the state, as well as the diversity.”

In neighboring Lincoln County, Nevada’s third largest by size but one of the smallest by number of residents, spending on recreation and tourism is a way to stimulate the economy in a county where 98 percent of the land is managed by the federal government.

The county has seen its population decline during the last few decades, and at the beginning of the century, ideas for stimulating the county’s economy included developing Caliente into a transfer station for the nation’s radioactive waste.

Although that didn’t come to fruition, another effort at driving economic growth has — mountain biking trails. The county opened its first several miles of dedicated singletrack in late 2017, drawing several hundred visitors.

The International Mountain Bike Association estimated Caliente could draw 7,000 to 8,000 people per year with the trails it currently has, according to a 2019 economic analysis of mountain biking and other outdoor tourism prepared for Caliente and Lincoln County by UNR, although those visitors are likely to be seasonal.

According to the economic analysis, mountain bikers are overwhelmingly men with average incomes of more than $60,000 who ride for a few hours, then eat, drink and look for other entertainment or recreation. The goal is to market the county as an area those types of visitors would want to spend multiple days visiting, riding and spending money in the community.

That number of visitors would generate enough revenue to allow new businesses such as bike shops or rental facilities to establish themselves with a handful of employees to cater to the tourists and be successful, according to the UNR report.

But the county is looking to build more. Lincoln County has earmarked a goal of building around 80 miles of trail through partnerships with the City of Caliente, Nevada Division of State Parks, the Bureau of Land Management and nonprofit conservation and mountain biking organizations.

“The growth of mountain biking dollars, through tourism assets, provides sustainability for our businesses and helps support the workers and local communities,” Hurd said in an email. “And, let’s face it, it’s fun to get out and challenge ourselves in an atmosphere of wide-open spaces and beautiful places.”

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Nevada

Problem gambling orgs join Nevada legal fight against prediction markets

Published

4 hours ago

March 30, 2026

Press Room

Problem gambling orgs join Nevada legal fight against prediction markets

Dana Gentry
| Nevada Current

Nevada’s leading authorities in preventing and treating problem gambling are joining state regulators and the casino industry to combat prediction markets, which, they contend, threaten to cut into the action of Nevada’s gambling enterprises and worsen the nation’s addiction to betting, especially on sports.

In less than a decade, legal sports betting, with the help of a U,S. Supreme Court ruling and the omnipresent smart phone, has morphed from a Nevada-centric novelty to a ubiquitous national pastime, with a slew of harmful side effects.

Nevada, once the only player in the legal sports betting game, has been relegated to the minor leagues in terms of revenue generated.

The American Gaming Association projects wagering on the 2026 NCAA tournament, excluding prediction market betting, which has not been officially estimated, will reach $3.3 billion, up 54% in the last three years.

Nevada’s 2025 March Madness betting was estimated at $466 million.

ESPN reports bettors wagered $1.9 billion on college basketball games in February on Kalshi alone.

In late December, the Financial Times reported trading volume on sports bets on Kalshi since its inception reached $16.8 billion, compared with $4.9 billion on other topics. By comparison, Nevada’s sports betting handle for 2025 was $8 billion, down 9% from the previous year.

Prediction platforms, critics argue, threaten to upend Nevada’s nearly 100-year history of profitable, regulated gambling.

Two betting sites, Kalshi and Crypto.com, are wrangling with Nevada gaming regulators and the Nevada Resort Association in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The platforms are challenging the constitutionality of state law, which requires that gambling enterprises have a state gaming license.

The Ninth Circuit last week denied Kalshi’s emergency motion to stop Nevada from enforcing its regulations pending the outcome of the appeal, according to Nevada Current. The ruling allowed Nevada to obtain a temporary injunction in state court prohibiting Kalshi from taking bets from gamblers in Nevada, at least until an April 3 hearing.

The Nevada Council on Problem Gambling, which specializes in prevention, and The Dr. Robert Hunter International Problem Gambling Center, a leading treatment center, filed amici, or ‘friend of the court’ briefs in the Ninth Circuit case, where a hearing is scheduled for April 16.

“Kalshi and similar prediction markets are the newest craze in sports betting and have exploded into the cultural zeitgeist,” the NCPG’s brief asserts.

The council rejects the argument that prediction platforms engage in commodity trades. “If it behaves like gambling, it should carry the same guardrails, accountability, and public health obligations — otherwise you create a parallel market with fewer protections and higher risk,” says NCPG’s Executive Director Trey Delap.

Chief among Delap’s concerns is the speed at which prediction platform gambling moves.

“It eliminates ‘friction’ — virtually eliminating any sort of time delay in accessing money and breaks in play,” Delay, a recovering problem gambler, said Thursday. “These breaks allow for a moment of awareness where one may judge the impact of their play.”

State regulators argue Kalshi is subject to Nevada law when taking bets in Nevada. Kalshi and others contend their federal regulatory status under the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission exempts them from state oversight.

The CFTC “does not propound or enforce gaming regulations, especially those related to preventing and addressing problem gambling,” NCPG’s brief argues. “To allow Kalshi’s sports betting to be regulated only by the CFTC is effectively to allow it to be unregulated with regard to problem gambling risk.”

The CFTC recognizes its regulatory limitations, the brief notes, citing a 2024 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would have prohibited betting on political and sporting events.

Commission regulations, the proposed rule said, are “focused on regulating financial instruments and markets, and do not include provisions aimed at protecting gambling specific risks and concerns inherent to gambling. …Gambling is a rapidly evolving field, and the Commission does not believe that it has the statutory mandate nor specialized experience to oversee it.”

The proposed rule was withdrawn in January.

“Nevada’s model works because of proximity — regulators, operators, and support systems are integrated,” says Delap. “Removing that structure weakens protections for consumers.”

Unlike casinos or sportsbooks “where the gambling nature of the activity is explicit — Kalshi downplays or omits warnings related to addiction, loss of control, or financial harm,” NCPG argues in its filing. “Instead, Kalshi famously portrays itself as intellectually rigorous, socially valuable, and skill based.”

The filing contends that “Kalshi’s slick, easy to use platform mimics traditional gambling, meaning that the risk associated with the use of the platform is high.” Without safeguards, it asserts, “the use of Kalshi in the state of Nevada is a public health crisis waiting to happen.”

Nevada gambling regulation for in-person and on-line wagering includes a number of safeguards, including age and identity verification, advertising standards, mechanisms for self-exclusion from play, and funding for problem gambling programs. Online operators are responsible for additional measures, including limits on deposits, bet amounts, and time playing.

“These safeguards do not eliminate all risk. They manage it,” says the NPGC’s brief.

Almost half of digital sports betting ads viewed in the U.S. this year are from prediction market platforms, which are not subject to responsible gambling advertising requirements that apply to state and tribal gambling operations.

Kalshi is the most visible sports betting advertiser in the U.S., with about 5.2 billion digital ad impressions this year, according to research from the American Gaming Association. The second most prolific advertiser, Fan Duel, generated 2.9 billion impressions.

In January and February, nearly half of digital sports betting ads in the U.S. were for prediction platforms, and did not include responsible gaming messaging, as required by states.

In addition to lacking safeguards, the brief notes a dearth of national policy dialogue amid the explosion of betting on prediction platforms.

Gambling disorder, it notes, is “a clinical condition that can be diagnosed in individuals. Public health policy, by contrast, focuses on population-level exposure, accessibility, and environmental risk.” Public health policy examines not only “who develops a disorder, but how many people are exposed to risk, how frequently, and under what safeguards.”

“Increased access, speed, and normalization of wagering-like products are associated with higher risk of harm at the population level,” says Delap of the NCPG.

Strange bedfellows?

Critics of the multi-state effort to rein in prediction platforms blame anticompetitive state and tribal licensees, some of which have been known to stray outside the regulatory boundaries they now seek to impose on the platforms.

Consumer protection, prediction market advocates argue, is a priority for licensees only when faced with a new form of competition, such as tribal or internet gambling.

“This isn’t about protecting consumers,” Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour wrote on X this week of the effort to ban sports betting on prediction platforms. “It’s about protecting monopolies.”

An analysis by the National Council on Problem Gambling found that on average, states with legal gambling met only 32 of its 82 recommended player protection standards. Nevada aligned with 24 of the NCPG’s standards, landing it in the bottom tier of compliance with ten other states.

A University of Nevada Las Vegas Institute of Gaming study published last year found 15% of Nevada adults are defined as problem gamblers, meaning they’ve experienced harm from their gambling “many times” in the last year. The national average is 2%, according to the National Council.

Yet, the state’s commitment to adequately funding problem gambling prevention and treatment has long been lacking.

Problem gambling organizations in Nevada have historically declined to opine on whether betting is inherently good or bad. Their prevention and treatment efforts are often supported by casinos, financially and in other ways, such as making promotional material about problem gambling accessible to gamblers.

Delap contends the council’s brief does not signal alliance with the gaming industry.

“In informing the court on the public risk and harm, our position would be the same regardless of gaming’s position,” he said, adding that “since the harm of problem gambling is felt at the community and state level, we should have authority to protect the public.”

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Nevada

Northern Nevada backyards and gardens: Early blooms of spring – Carson Now

Published

16 hours ago

March 29, 2026

Press Room

Northern Nevada backyards and gardens: Early blooms of spring – Carson Now

I was disappointed this week watching the daffodils fade already. It seemed they only lasted a week. I had expected them to bloom longer. Fortunately, the ones in the shadier areas of the yard are just coming into bloom, so I should be able to enjoy them for another couple of weeks.

JoAnne Skelly

My grape hyacinths are blooming, and the regular hyacinths may bloom next week. After the vole infestation of a couple of years ago, I don’t have many hyacinths left. They didn’t eat them, but their tunneling destroyed the bulbs.

The crabapples have really come into color in the last couple of days. Unfortunately, high winds are expected, and the blossoms may get blown away. The red delicious apple doesn’t seem to have any blooms at all, while the old-fashioned apple has just a few. It may be that the flower buds were pruned off when I had the trees done. Other than missing their lovely display, I really don’t mind the lack of flowers. Less flowers means less fruit, which means less work picking apples. This may also mean fewer yellowjackets on rotting fruit on the ground.

Lovely to see are the purply-blue violets taking over the lawn. They grow so low that my husband can mow right over them without hurting them. All the violets in my yard reseeded from one or two volunteer plants of many years ago. Now there are hundreds. While some people want a pristine green velvet turf, I’m not one of them; not when I can enjoy violets. I even welcome dandelions because their color is so happy.

I spent the morning trimming back the dead leaves on the crocosmia. I wait until spring before doing this to remind me where the new shoots are so I don’t step on them. After I cleaned them up, I marked their location with flags. They are still too small to see above the sedum they are growing in. I also cut off the declining daffodils.

Then, I got out my watering can and the water-soluble blue fertilizer made famous on TV, which shall remain nameless, and gave all my flowers, including the daffs, a good feed. It is definitely time to fertilize the lawn too.

With the hotter weather, I have been irrigating every other day with both the high pressure in-ground system and the low pressure drip system. I read that rain and snow may be coming, but the probability of significant precipitation is minimal.

Hurrah for Spring!

— JoAnne Skelly is an Associate Professor and Extension Educator, Emerita, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. She can be reached at skellyj@unr.edu.

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