The pro-casino groups Keep the Money in Nebraska and Arkansas Wins in 2016 both submitted more signatures than required to put gambling issues on the November ballot.
Keep the Money in Nebraska turned in more than 310,000 signatures to the office of Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale before the July 7 deadline to have three gambling issues placed on the November ballot. A constitutional amendment would allow games of chance at licensed racetracks. The other two would change state law to specify where casinos can be located, how they’re regulated and taxed and how the tax revenue is distributed.
Supporters needed valid signatures from 10 percent of the state’s registered voters, or about 113,900 people, to place the constitutional amendment on the ballot. The other two proposals required signatures from 7 percent of voters, or about 79,700. In addition, signatures were required from at least 5 percent of registered voters in a minimum of 38 counties. Spokesman Scott Lautenbaugh, a former state senator, said workers actually collected signatures from all 93 of the state’s counties.
Gale said his office has hired temporary workers to help sort through and number the petitions. Then each box will be sent to its respective county, where local election officials will confirm the signatures and report their count. County officials have up to 40 days to complete the process, but Gale can extend the deadline by 10 days. Then his office will count the number of valid signatures and certify the measures for November.
Nebraska allows betting on horse racing, keno, lottery and bingo. One small casino resort and three slots parlors are owned by Native Americans.
Referendums to expand gambling to casinos or video slots failed in 2004 and 2006. In 2014, a wording issue kept a referendum off the ballot that would have allowed historical racing at horse racetracks.
Lautenbaugh said Nebraskans spend about $500 million a year on gambling in states bordering Nebraska that allow legalized gambling. He didn’t cite a specific study to back up that figure; however, a report created for the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission indicated Nebraska residents spent $327 million at Iowa casinos in 2013.
Lautenbaugh said Keep the Money in Nebraska conducted a survey that found 58 percent of Nebraskans support casino gambling. He said expanded gambling could generate up to $120 million annually in tax revenue to help pay for bridges, roads, schools and provide tax relief. It also could help to save the state’s struggling horseracing industry, he said, noting Nebraska’s racetracks have been in decline since Iowa legalized casinos in 1989. The proposals include a 20 percent tax on gross gambling revenue, with 75 percent going to the state and the rest to the local government where a casino is located.
Keep the Money in Nebraska’s primary contributor is Ho-Chunk Inc., the economic development arm of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, which donated most of the $1.25 million the group had raised as of June 25. Others include the Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association and Omaha Exposition & Racing.
The Winnebago tribe owns one of the Native American slot parlors plus the WinnaVegas Casino Resort in Sloan, Iowa, which lost some market share when Hard Rock Hotel & Casino opened in Sioux City in 2014. Currently Ho-Chunk is building a racetrack at the former Atokad Downs in South Sioux City while it awaits the results of the November referendum. If it passes, Ho-Chunk will be a casino on the site; if it fails, it will build a restaurant and simulcast facility.
Ho-Chunk President and Chief Executive Officer Lance Morgan said, “Even the people who will never step in a casino realize it’s silly for the last 25 years to be sending money over to Iowa.” He noted the referendum would not allow casinos throughout the state, and accused some opponents of racial discrimination by using Ho-Chunk’s tribal connection as a scare tactic.
Pat Loontjer, a 71-year old grandmother who runs the anti-casino group Gambling With the Good Life out of her Omaha apartment, said, “You have to ask yourself, ‘Why did the Indians put up a million dollars?’ Not because they like horses. Get real. They put it up because they know once we change our constitution we will have unlimited Indian casinos and slots parlors all over the state. This is a very dangerous, deceitful proposal. If we change that constitution we will have unlimited casinos, unlimited slots and a can of worms we’ll never be able to close again.”
Gambling with the Good Life has raised slightly more than $25,000, according to state campaign filings. The Archdiocese of Omaha gave the group $12,500. Loontjer said the group won’t be able to afford television or radio ads, but it has the support of Governor Pete Ricketts and former University of Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne.
Loontjer said she’s seeking legal advice to have the measure kept off the ballot. She also plans to build a grassroots coalition of churches, businesses, community leaders and nonprofits and to hold meetings at town halls throughout the state. “Our goal is to build a coalition that’s truly grassroots. We want to get the word out. We might not have the money, but we have the truth. We’re fighting for our children and grandchildren so we have a passion for this issue,” she said.
In Arkansas, supporters of a constitutional amendment that would allow casinos in Boone, Miller and Washington counties submitted 92,120 signatures, more than the 84,859 required from registered voters, by the deadline. Arkansas Wins in 2016 spokesman Robert Coon said the group had only five weeks to collect the signatures following the attorney’s certification of the ballot title. Now the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office must check the validity of each signature.
Casinos would be required to pay the state 18 percent of their net and pay 1.5 percent to the host city and .5 percent to the local counties. The amendment also would create an Arkansas Gaming Commission composed of five commissioners appointed by the governor; they would serve a five-year term. Besides casino gaming, the measure also would allow wagering on sporting and other events.
Coon said this initiative differs from previous efforts to legalize casino gaming because Arkansans have become more comfortable with gaming, including a state lottery, and the racinos Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs and Southland Gaming and Racing in West Memphis, plus casinos in neighboring states. “With exposure becomes a little bit of an attitude change,” Coon said.
Last month, Arkansas Wins in 2016 announced the Washington County facility would be managed by Cherokee Nation Entertainment, which operates nine casinos in Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, as they await casino approval, Arkansans purchased enough state lottery tickets in the past year to reach record-breaking sales levels of $455.6 million, an increase of 11.5 percent over fiscal 2015, according to the legislature’s Lottery Oversight Committee. Of that total, $85.4 million funded college scholarships, up $6 million over official projections and a $13 million increase over the previous year. Instant ticket sales were up $25 million over fiscal 2015 and draw games rose more than $22 million.
The Arkansas lottery began in 2009 and has provided more than $600 million for in-state college scholarships to Arkansas students.
