The Keep the Money in Nebraska group launched an initiative to allow casino-style gambling at the state’s five licensed tracks plus the shuttered Atokad Park racetrack in South Sioux City, in an effort to save the state’s struggling Thoroughbred horseracing industry. The three petitions submitted by the group to the state secretary of state’s office included two that would change state statutes and one that would amend the state constitution.
The state law changes would levy a 20 percent tax on gross gambling revenue, with 75 percent going to the state and 25 percent to the host community, and require a $1 million license fee per operator. Also, a regulatory commission would be established. The constitutional amendment would ask voters to allow “all forms of games of chance to be conducted with licensed horse racing in Nebraska.”
The group must get about 79,700 signatures for the state law changes and about 113,900 for the constitutional amendment before July 2016 in order to be placed on the 2016 ballot. Group principal Lance Morgan, chief executive officer of Ho-Chunk Inc., the economic development wing of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, said the group has hired a professional firm to help with the effort, which will cost about $1 million to collect the signatures. Morgan said Ho-Chunk and the Nebraska Thoroughbred groups will cover that expense.
Group principal Lance Morgan, chief executive officer of Ho-Chunk Inc., the economic development wing of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, said, “We don’t think we’re going to have any trouble getting signatures. Our goal is to create economic development in Nebraska, create both direct and indirect jobs and keep some of the money that’s been leaking to other states.”
Morgan said the state has missed out on around $5 billion in gaming revenue during the past 20 years, while Nebraskans spend about $400 million at Iowa casinos. Legalizing casino gambling in Nebraska could generate $60-$120 million in new tax revenue. “I think it’s prudent to get some of that back in the state,” Morgan said.
He cited a survey commissioned by the group indicating 58 percent of Nebraskans support expanded gambling. But state Senator Beau McCoy of Omaha disagreed with those figures, noting, “It’s my viewpoint that a large number of Nebraskans still don’t support casino gambling. Some may enjoy going to surrounding states to casinos as a recreational activity, but at the end of the day, they don’t want it in their home state.”
Other opponents include Pat Loontjer, executive director of gambling with the Good Life. He said Keep the Money in Nebraska’s proposal “will blow this state wide open with Indian casinos. It’s being sold as ‘save the horses, only at the tracks,’ but that’s not what’s going to happen. The minute we change the constitution that opens up the state to widespread Indian casinos, which are untaxed.”
Morgan stated Keep the Money in Nebraska was formed because the legislature has been unresponsive to expanding gambling, and new Governor Pete Ricketts is opposed to it.In 2013 the legislature voted 30-17 to place historic racing before voters but the Nebraska Supreme Court removed it from the ballot in 2014, ruling it violated a constitutional requirement that such ballot issues contain only one subject.
Morgan noted the Keep the Money in Nebraska group wants more than betting on historic racing, stating, “You might as well put something on the ballot that will compete head-to-head with the Iowa casinos. The casinos in Iowa have essentially killed the Nebraska horseracing industry and all the jobs associated with it.” He added, “Whether you support gaming or not, obviously some people are going to do it. Nobody puts a gun to anyone’s head and says they’ve got to go to a casino. It’s a voluntary entertainment option.” Morgan pointed out casino-style gaming is legal in every state that borders Nebraska: Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
Under the group’s proposals, gaming only would be allowed at the state’s five licensed racetracks: Lincoln Race Course in Lincoln, Fonner Park in Grand Island, Horsemen’s Park in Omaha, Columbus Exposition and Racing in Columbus and Fairplay Park in Hastings. Ho-Chunk Inc. also said it plans to open a casino at Atokad Downs in South Sioux City, which closed in September 2012.
Petition sponsors include Ho-Chunk; the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, which represents Nebraska’s horse owners and trainers and owns Lincoln Race Course and Horsemen’s Park; and Omaha Exposition and Racing, operators of the Omaha and Lincoln facilities.
