Nebraska Cornhusker legends Tom Osborne and Johnny Rodgers showed up at the state capitol February 10 to speak out against expanded gambling. The two told the General Affairs Committee the negatives far outweigh the positives.
State Senator Justin Wayne of Omaha differs. Nebraska’s gambling laws are outdated and new options could raise revenue and lower taxes, he said.
“Outdated laws are counterproductive,” Wayne told members of the General Affairs Committee.
With 80 percent of Nebraskans already gambling in Iowa, he worries that Nebraska gets none of the tax benefits, according to WOWT.
“That’s a dead argument when you say it will bring in tax dollars,” former Nebraska football coach Osborne said. “There are all sorts of research that show the social costs created by gambling and the speed of gambling with double and triple the social costs involved.”
Gambling “usually impacts those who can least afford it,” Osborne said, as they respond to the “fraudulent premise that gambling will make them money over time,” when the reality is that odds makers make sure that will not happen.
In terms of the impact of increased sports gambling, he said that could “cause the environment to be more toxic” at Memorial Stadium and even “change the nature of the event.”
But Nebraska is already gambling, Wayne said. “There are three casinos right across from my district. And you don’t even have to go across the river anymore to bet; you can do so at the casino in Carter Lake.”
Among his three related bills he introduced, Wayne has proposed sports betting that would prohibit wagers on high school or youth sports.
In January alone, the three Iowa casinos saw more than $8 million in bets on sports and $31 million on table games and slots. Since September—when sports betting went into effect in Iowa—that state has collected $1.9 million in new revenue.
Supporters say Nebraska opponents of expanding gambling are being hypocritical, that the lottery has been here for years and participants have better odds of winning at a casino.
The bills ran into opposition at the committee hearing, calling into question the legislative approval, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. Most of the testimony centered on legalizing sports betting. Wayne also presented a bill which would define fantasy sports and poker as games of skill, thus legalizing those activities, and a proposed constitutional amendment to permit the Legislature to authorize all forms of gambling.
Participation in fantasy sports requires knowledge and strategy “rather than just luck,” Wayne said. “There’s a difference between slot machines and fantasy sports.”
Pat Loontjer, executive director of Gambling with the Good Life, organized testimony opposing the expanded proposals.
“We have seen the devastation that comes with gambling: addiction, crime, divorce, embezzlements and even suicides,” she said in a statement preceding the hearing. “The state exists to benefit our families and businesses, not to prey upon them.”
Les Bernal, national director of Stop Predatory Gambling, told the committee that Nebraskans already have lost $1.2 billion in gambling on the Nebraska Lottery since 1993.
“And citizens who don’t gamble pay even if they don’t play,” he said.
“Gambling is a form of commercialized financial fraud. This is a con at its core. It’s rigged.”
Meanwhile, a horse racing dilemma in Nebraska revolves around a version of simulcasting, but one in which the races have already been run. It goes by the name of historical horse racing and the Nebraska Racing Commission has approved its use at Fonner Park in Grand Island.
But last month, the Nebraska Attorney General’s office said not so fast when it asked a judge to nullify the commission’s decision.
The suit didn’t come as a surprise, given that the office sent a letter to the racing commission in November 2018 advising members they didn’t have legal authority to approve wagering on previously run races using historical horse racing machines, according to the Lincoln Journal Star.
Suzanne Gage, director of communications for the Attorney General, has said they are asking the court to stop the use of the machines “as Nebraska law does not permit the commission’s unilateral decision to expand gambling without action by the legislature or the citizens of Nebraska.”
It’s the second lawsuit to be filed in Lancaster County District Court seeking court review of the commission’s final order in December approving the new form of wagering.
Historical horse racing terminals allow a bettor to make wagers on unidentified horses in previously run races from across the U.S., officials with AmTote International said. The terminals, which look like slot machines and operate in Kentucky, Wyoming, Oregon and Alabama, are seen by proponents as a way to draw more people to the tracks and keep the struggling horse racing industry viable after decades of decline in Nebraska.
Fonner Park has said it plans to install the terminals so they’re operational by February 21, when the track opens its annual live racing meet.
