Casinos in Nebraska will affect other games

Tara Godvin

Monday, Sept. 13, 2004 | 9:11 a.m.

OMAHA, Neb. -- The Belvedere Club's bingo hall starts filling up an hour and a half before any games begin.

Early on a recent Tuesday evening, monitors that usually show the latest pick remained dark. But players were already gearing up for about four hours of hunting out numbers -- their colorful, card-stamping sponges placed in rows at the ready.

Ron Rumelhart, president of the community club, lit a cigarette and answered questions about the future of bingo.

Rumelhart has seen interest in the game wane over the years as casinos popped up in surrounding states, an observation reflected in recent statistics on games currently legal in Nebraska.

Now, two ballot proposals that would allow casinos in Nebraska pose a new threat to bingo and other games of chance in the state.

Currently, lottery, horse racing, keno, bingo and pull-tab machines are legal in Nebraska. All but the lotteries have been suffering since the mid-1990s after video and casino gambling began across the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and in every neighboring state but Wyoming.

According to the state Revenue Department, spending on charitable gambling such as keno, bingo, pickle cards, local lotteries and raffles, has decreased 36 percent since players spent $408 million during the industry's peak year of 1994.

Despite the proposals' threat to his bingo operation and the approximately $32,000 his club gives to local charities, Rumelhart isn't part of the opposition.

"Well, even though it might mean the death of us, I'm for it," Rumelhart said. "Why lose the revenue to Iowa?"

Though some gaming officials seem resigned to a dismal fate should casino-style gambling be allowed in Nebraska, others have decided to hitch their fortunes to a group of initiatives proposed by a coalition called Keep the Money in Nebraska.

Unlike the legislative proposal, which would allow for two casinos anywhere in the state, the Keep the Money in Nebraska initiatives would legalize two casinos in Omaha. The group's proposals would also allow for about 4,900 video poker and slot machine games to be located in race tracks, bars and restaurants throughout the state, if approved locally.

Keep the Money in Nebraska spokeswoman Julia Plucker said the inspiration behind including the machines in the group's proposals was to help maintain and increase local revenues in Nebraska. The proposal also includes a provision to provide money to local charities. According to the proposals, 75 percent of the tax revenue from the machines would go back to local communities, she said.

"The legislative proposal absolutely doesn't take into account the local communities at all," Plucker said.

State Sen. DiAnna Schimek of Lincoln, a chief backer of the Legislature's plan, said the state does not want to draw money away from any local charities that benefit from games currently in the state. But it is difficult to anticipate what affect the introduction of casinos in Nebraska will have on those games.

"I'm not saying that we shouldn't think about it and take it into account, but you can't protect every form of gambling out there," Schimek said.

Nebraska Horsemen's Benevolent Protective Association has contributed $350,000 to Keep the Money in Nebraska.

Nebraska's horse racing industry has already seen the closing of the state's premier track, Aksarben, in 1995. Though in-state casinos without slot machines elsewhere wouldn't put the remaining tracks out of business immediately, "it will have a significant impact in the long run," said Lynne McNally Schuller, executive director of the association.

Paul Schumacher of Columbus, who is president of Community Lottery Systems, said that under the Keep the Money in Nebraska proposals, keno, pickle card and bingo operators could operate a slot machine or other automated gaming machines and recapture some of the money that has been going to casinos in nearby states.

Schumacher's company, which operates keno games for about 100 towns across the state, has given $350,000 to Keep the Money in Nebraska.

Games such as keno are a significant source of revenue for small-town economies, Schumacher said. And unless the Legislature's proposal includes funds to local governments and charities that also receive proceeds from the games, that money will be lost, he said.

Schimek noted the Legislature's proposal is simply an amendment allowing the two casinos in the state.

"The particulars we did not chose to put in this amendment because that's not what's supposed to go into the constitution," she said.

Details including oversight, rules and taxing would be decided by the state once the amendment is approved, she said.

As she prepared for the first game of the night at the Belvedere Club, Joyce Holman, of Omaha, said she's spent time at nearby casinos, even getting membership cards to a few of them. With their promise of an immediate and bountiful return, the slot machines have their appeal, she said.

Recently Holman has returned to bingo -- which she's been playing on and off for 20 years -- because it's more relaxing, she said.

There's no moving from one slot machine to another, trying to find a lucky one and no casino promotions that never seem to meet expectations. Instead, Holman pays one time for a group of cards, sits back and plays the entire night, she said.

Though she'd vote for either gambling proposal in November, she said there's one change she doesn't want to see.

"I want my bingo game to stay," Holman said.