The long debate over mandatory daily room cleanings at Nevada casino resorts and hotels has a new angle this week.
The powerful Culinary Workers Union Local 226 has long wanted mandatory daily cleanings to return, since they were dropped after the pandemic. It says this will ensure a certain amount of contracted work hours for housekeeping staff among its roughly16,000 members, and it improves the guest experience.
Nevada’s Republican politicians, backed by the gambling business for the most part, have consistently said it isn’t the state’s place to dictate this decision, and it wouldn’t be financially viable, anyway.
Amid the opening week of the Nevada legislative session, one young Republican had different ideas. State Senator Lori Rogich (R-Las Vegas) wants to combine the influence of the union and the legal cannabis business in Nevada on this issue.
Rogich, a pot industry lawyer before becoming a politician, told The Nevada Independent this week that she thinks daily housekeeping could deter people from using Las Vegas hotel rooms or suites for consuming or distributing black market marijuana.
Currently, pot consumption is legal in Nevada, but only in private residences or consumption lounges. Yet marijuana smoke remains a common and potent smell on the Las Vegas Strip.
The Proposal
Rogich says mandatory daily room cleanings would be a win-win for everyone except the cannabis black market.
That includes union workers, the legal cannabis business, nonsmoking guests at Las Vegas casino resorts, and (even though they don’t support it) casino hotel operators themselves.
If guests bringing in or buying illicit cannabis were instead forced to legal consumption lounges for fear of getting their weed confiscated in hotels, Rogich says, Nevada would get more tax and the cannabis business would have more room to demand fairer consumption laws.
For many years after cannabis legalization, there still wasn’t a single consumption lounge in Las Vegas. That meant tourists could visit Las Vegas and buy legal weed from a dispensary, only to then find out they have nowhere legal to consume it.
That has changed, with two lounges now open in Nevada. However, dispensaries are still not allowed on the Las Vegas Strip. This has led to the rise of “fake” cannabis vendors who sell CBD weed products — with little to no psychoactive effects — to unknowing tourists.
A stronger legal weed business could outmuscle these vendors and prevent tourists from getting ripped off, Rogich says.
She sees daily room cleanings as giving unions what they wanted for years, while her measure will add a new way of protecting the legal cannabis market – which is an important additional visitation and revenue driver for Las Vegas.
The Opposition
However, Rogich admits herself the chances of her idea becoming law are slim. Although the union actually backed her Senate campaign in 2024 – an unusual win for a Republican – she says discussions are ongoing over this idea.
The Nevada Resort Association is also opposed. Its President, Virginia Valentine, whose members lobbied to end the daily room cleaning mandates in 2023, said she was aware of the proposed bill draft. That year, Senators voted 18-3 to drop the mandatory daily room cleaning established during the pandemic.
“We strongly opposed it in 2023 and our position has not changed,” Valentine said Tuesday.
Politicians and gambling business figures say that most rooms are cleaned daily anyway, and that some guests simply don’t want the intrusion of mandatory daily housekeeping visits. Others, usually Republicans, say that it isn’t the state’s business to micromanage the hospitality business in such a way.
The union has yet to make a statement on the matter, possibly because of the logistics of employing housekeepers in drug searches, although Rogich said it is because the bill is still being drafted.
In 2024, the union dropped its official support for 18 Democratic Nevada politicians who didn’t support bringing back daily room cleaning, and it supported Republican Rogich. So it is interesting it hasn’t openly backed this latest proposal just yet.
David is an online casino expert who specializes in online slots and boasts over 10 years experience writing about iGaming. He has written for a wide range of notable publications, including eSports Insider and WordPlay Magazine.
David graduated Derby University with a BA Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.
