Senator renews casino talk

Senator renews casino talk
By Leslie Reed
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

LINCOLN — Although there's little momentum yet, state lawmakers are beginning to toy with taking another run at legalizing casino gambling in Nebraska.

It was 2006 when voters last took up the issue, rejecting video slot machines. Approval of a constitutional amendment would be required before casinos could be allowed in Nebraska.

At an interim study hearing Friday, a state lawmaker said he estimated, from the share of license plates at Council Bluffs casinos, that Nebraskans drop an estimated $321 million a year on gambling there.

State Sen. Paul Schumacher of Columbus calculated that state and local governments in Iowa collect about $70 million in tax revenues from Nebraskans who gamble in Council Bluffs.

Schumacher said he sees no "immediate move" to try to put casino gambling on next year's ballot, but he thinks the idea should be kept on the table in case Nebraska continues to face state budget shortfalls.

"There's one whole lot of money leaving the state, and we're giving Iowa a subsidy of up to $70 million a year on those three (casino) operations in Council Bluffs," he said. "That's a statement of fact."

Gambling opponents questioned Schumacher's figures.

Pat Loontjer, executive director of Gambling With the Good Life, an anti-gambling group based in Omaha, said she is prepared for new efforts to legalize casinos in Nebraska.

"They're testing the waters," she said.

Schumacher is the founder and president of Lotto Nebraska, which runs keno lotteries on behalf of 100 rural communities in a group called Nebraska Cooperative Government. He was a supporter of proposed constitutional amendments rejected by voters in 2004 that would have legalized casinos and allowed bars and keno parlors to have slot and video poker machines.

State Sen. Russ Karpisek of Wilber, who is chairman of the legislative committee that deals with gambling issues, said he introduced Legislative Resolution 299 at Schumacher's request. It was one of three gambling study hearings conducted Friday by the General Affairs Committee.

The others dealt with proposals to prop up Nebraska's tottering horse racing industry, including a study on whether horse races should be held in conjunction with the Nebraska State Fair.

Karpisek and Schumacher both cautioned that there are many obstacles to expanding gambling in Nebraska. Keno operators and others who rely on existing forms of gambling likely would oppose more competition.

In addition, the gambling landscape has changed, with Iowa adding more casinos, and Las Vegas and Reno, Nev., taking severe hits in the recession. Schumacher said Nevada casino operators have lost interest in Nebraska.

Still, Karpisek said Nebraska should "absolutely" consider whether it could land a share of casino gambling revenues.

"Two-thirds of our population lives within 50 miles of a casino — we already have the social ills that come from the casinos," he said.

Loretta Fairchild, a Nebraska Wesleyan University economist who specializes in public finance, took issue with the quick calculations presented at Friday's hearing.

She said lawmakers should not proceed without conducting a "real study" of gambling's costs and benefits.

"They can't just have a legislative aide thumb through the reports that are already out there and result in an even-handed study," she said.

Fairchild said she was made aware of Friday's hearing by the opposition group Gambling With the Good Life but that she did not represent the group in her testimony.

Schumacher said his report was based on revenue statistics from the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission's 2011 report, which reported $1.37 billion revenue for Iowa racetracks and casinos and $428 million in revenue for the three casinos in Council Bluffs.

Based on surveys pro-gambling forces took of license plates in casino parking lots in 2004, Schumacher said he assumed 75 percent of the Council Bluffs gamblers came from Nebraska and 75 percent of the casinos' revenues came from Nebraska gamblers. He then calculated that 75 percent of the state and local taxes paid came from Nebraskans' wallets.

Loontjer called Schumacher's calculations "irresponsible."

"There's no way to know if those cars belonged to people who worked there, to people who went for the buffets or shows," she said. "There's no way to know how much money they gambled."