Nebraska senators dump gambling resolution

Currently voters must amend the Constitution to expand gambling.

Schumacher said the proposal would have made it possible for Nebraska to compete with neighboring states for gambling revenue, something that is too difficult to accomplish with constitutional amendments.

He said most Nebraskans now live within an hour of casinos and that Nebraskans spend an estimated $300 million to $400 million on gambling outside of the state. Iowa, in particular, has geared its casinos to attract Nebraskans’ dollars.

“The question is whether sovereigns should be able to respond to raids on their resources by neighboring sovereigns,” he said.

But Sen. Beau McCoy of Omaha, an ardent gambling opponent who filed the motion to kill LR 10CA, responded that expanded gambling would not be worth the social costs.

He called the proposal “ill-advised” and said the decision to allow further gambling, casino or otherwise, should remain in the hands of voters.

LR 10CA would not, by itself, have expanded gambling. But it would have lowered the bar for doing so.

Instead of having to get a measure on the ballot and conducting a statewide campaign, gambling proponents would only have had to convince 33 senators — enough to break a likely filibuster and overcome any gubernatorial veto.

In past years, Nebraska voters have approved some types of gambling: betting on horse races, the state lottery and charitable gaming, including keno and pickle cards. They have rejected multiple other proposals to allow off-track betting, casinos and slot machines.