Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Nebraska measure headed to voters

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Now it's in the voters' hands.

The Nebraska Legislature on Wednesday voted 31-16 to put a casino gambling constitutional amendment on the Nov. 2 ballot. The measure needed at least 30 votes to pass.

Only two casinos, to be located anywhere in the state with local voter approval, would be allowed under the amendment. Slot machines are not legalized outside of the casinos. However, the state's four Indian tribes could contract with the state to operate casinos on their reservation land.

Details would be worked out by the Legislature next year.

Gambling opponents were dejected.

"They just fed us to the lions, honey," said Pat Loontjer, director of anti-gambling group Gambling With the Good Life. "It's a very sad day for the state of Nebraska."

Every year since 2000, the Legislature has had an expanded gambling measure before it, but none has passed. The issue was debated more than 20 hours this year and last.

Also, twice in past years petition drives to expand gambling appeared to be headed for the ballot but were knocked off by legal challenges.

The two chief backers of the measure -- Sens. Ray Janssen of Nickerson and Lincoln Sen. DiAnna Schimek -- hugged after the vote.

"It's been a four-year struggle," Janssen said. "We've had our ups, and we've had our downs."

Sen. Adrian Smith of Gering, the most vocal opponent in the Legislature, spoke against the measure Wednesday but did not prolong the debate to force 33 senators to vote to cut it off.

Many lawmakers said they felt pressured to act this year because of a new petition drive under way that not only would legalize casinos, but unlike the Legislature's plan would also allow up to 4,900 slot machines at various locations across the state.

Under that petition, being circulated by a coalition called Keep the Money in Nebraska, the casinos could be in only Omaha. The Legislature's plan does not specify where the casinos would go, although most expect at least one to be in Omaha. The slot machines, while they could be in almost any community in the state, would be limited to bars, keno parlors and horse racetracks.

Passage of the Legislature's plan will not affect the collection of signatures, said Keep the Money in Nebraska spokeswoman Julia Plucker.

"We still feel that we are the comprehensive choice," she said.

The coalition includes Coast Casinos of Las Vegas, Nebraska's horse racing industry, keno operators and local communities. It is circulating a package of four petitions related to legalizing casinos.

Signatures -- about 110,000 for each of the proposed constitutional amendments and about 76,000 for the two proposed law changes -- are due July 2.

While the Keep the Money in Nebraska coalition is the largest and most well-financed, with $400,000 already in the bank, there are two other petition drives under way.

One supported by Nebraska's Quarter Horse racing industry and veterans would legalize video slot machines but not casinos. It would limit slot machines to veterans organizations, licensed pickle card operators and Nebraska's horse racetracks.

Rich Bellino, owner and manager of the La Vista Keno, is heading another petition that would legalize casino gambling and give cities and counties authority to approve electronic or mechanical gambling subject to a local vote of the people.

Petition backers argue that Nebraska has been losing money to Iowa ever since casinos opened across from Omaha in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Casino gambling was legalized there in 1989.

About 74 percent of the gamblers drawn to the three Council Bluffs casinos -- Harrah's, Ameristar and Bluffs Run -- are non-Iowans, according to figures from the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission.

Gambling opponents believe that casinos will only harm the state's economy, hurt local businesses, and drive up the number of addicted gamblers in the state.

A Creighton University study on possible casino links to bankruptcies released last month showed that personal bankruptcy filings in counties with casinos were higher than in non-casino counties in the United States during the 1990s.

The study also showed that business bankruptcies in casino counties were lower on average than in non-casino counties.

Voters deserve the right to decide for themselves, Janssen said.

"Whatever they decide, I'll live with that," he said.

The casino gambling issue was thought to be dead for the year in the Legislature when an earlier proposal fell a vote short of shutting off a filibuster.

But Speaker Curt Bromm of Wahoo made another casino gambling measure, last debated in 2003, a major proposal that ensured it would get another airing. It was amended to mirror Schimek's measure and advanced to the final round last week.

If Nebraska voters agree to legalize casino gambling it will join the state lottery and scratch games, keno lotteries and "pull tab" cards that are already allowed.

The Santee Sioux Tribe has operated a small casino on its reservation in northeast Nebraska for the past eight years in defiance of the state's laws against that form of gambling. The tribe's casino features bingo games and pull tab machines.

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