Election officials in Nebraska and Arkansas are counting registered voters’ signatures on petitions to verify if there are enough to put gambling issues on the November ballots.
If enough signatures qualify in Nebraska, voters would determine if casinos could open at the state’s six licensed racetracks, including the shuttered Atokad Downs in South Sioux City, Iowa. Ho-Chunk Inc., the economic development arm of the Winnebago Tribe, bought the property in 2012. Ho-Chunk has given the majority of funds, $1.2 million, to finance the petition drive. Besides Atokad, the ballot measure would allow casinos at racetracks in Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, Hastings and Columbus.
Ho-Chunk Chief Executive Officer Lance Morgan said turning Atokad into a racino would create 150 jobs. He added it also could help the tribe regain market share it lost at its WinnaVegas Casino in Sloan, Iowa when the Hard Rock Casino opened in Sioux City two years ago.
Morgan said allowing casino gambling in Nebraska would mean “more economic activity, more jobs, more everything. We’re dealing with six, seven generations of poverty and pulling out of that is expensive and takes effort. The key to our economic success was the tribe’s casino in Iowa–WinnaVegas. And that provided the seed money to the tribe’s corporation, Ho-Chunk Inc.” The casino provided $9 million to finance Ho-Chunk in 1994, Morgan said. Today Ho-Chunk manages $117 million in assets, with businesses including government contracting, construction, housing and tobacco and retail stores. It reported $16 million in profits last year.
Morgan said Ho-Chunk employs more than 1,000 people, including 200 who live on the Winnebago Reservation. ”The reservation has enough of a safety net that you can get by in poverty and be okay. Not great, but you can survive. We have a lot of people who are just surviving. So we could use a lot more jobs, I think,” he said.
However, Pat Loontjer, director of the anti-gambling group Gambling With the Good Life, said no one’s forcing tribal members to remain on the reservation. “We’ve subsidized the Indians for hundreds of years. There’s tremendous poverty on the reservation, there’s alcoholism, there’s a lot of things where that’s where they’ve chosen to stay, and that’s what the result was. This money is not going to just descend from Heaven. There’s going to be heartache involved in this. How could we rationalize doing this and changing the quality of the life we have in Nebraska to benefit whatever group, whether it be the Indians or whether it be Nevada?”
Loontjer also noted, “The Winnebago Tribe put up a million dollars, they paid for this. They did not put up the million dollars because they like horses. They put up the million dollars because they know the minute we change the constitution for one slot machine anywhere Indians can have unlimited casinos and slot machines.” In addition, she said the way the law is written, “a small, tiny percentage of the profit is going to come back to the state and the community and it goes into the general funds. It doesn’t even go toward education, property tax relief and not one penny goes toward addiction counseling.”
Loontjer said her group plans to form coalitions to urge people to vote against gambling. “Churches will be our main one. We will have doctor coalitions, attorney coalitions, big business coalitions, small business coalitions you name it. We even have a grandmothers coalition,” Loontjer said.
Not everyone is interested in Loontjer’s coalitions. Horse trainer Teressa O’Neill said, “I think it’s time that the people took the reins from the people who want to tell us how to live our lives The more money we can keep from going to Iowa, to keep from going to South Dakota, the better.” Fonner Park Announcer Steve Anderson added, “At this point, because of the expense of breeding a horse and raising it to an age that you can finally get to a race track and what they run for and return, the reward doesn’t fit the investment. But I can promise you that if this thing passes in November the breeding industry overnight will totally be revitalized.”
In Arkansas, Cherokee Nation Businesses LLC of Tahlequah, gave $1 million to fund a petition drive. If enough signatures are verified, voters would decide in November if they want casinos in Boone, Washington and Miller Counties, all to be licensed to Arkansas Winning Initiative Inc., the group backing the amendment. The Cherokee Nation has an agreement with the group to operate the Washington County casino if the ballot issues passes.
Opposition is expected from existing gambling operators in Arkansas, including the Southland casino in West Memphis and the Oaklawn casino in Hot Springs. They are the only legal gambling halls in Arkansas under state law that allows gambling permits for businesses. that also offer parimutuel gambling.
A recent financial report showed Arkansas Gaming and Resorts of Branson, Missouri gave $40,000 and Arkansas Wins in 2016 gave $7,400 to Arkansas Winning Initiative Inc. The group reported it spent $467,000 for paid canvassers in the petition drive, legal fees and a political consultant.
