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The Omaha World
Herald reports n the past 12 months, total gambling revenues collected by the
three Bluffs casinos grew by 7 percent, to $480.3 million. -see Breaking News
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The 2006 petitions taught one lesson. The 56% of
Nebraskans who want expanded gaming are divided on how to do it and
in 2006 certainly did not "get it right". The result
was a pro-gaming train wreck.
The ancient
Greeks were obsessed with "getting it right". For
Nebraskans, that is the challenge when it comes to gambling.
In 2004, a Las Vegas casino got the Legislature to give it the votes
that would have created up to 2 casinos. If the voters went
along with the Legislature, observers figured it was an excellent
bet that the Las Vegas casino behind Amendment 3 would have been
awarded a constitutionally protected monopoly in Omaha. The
voters said "NO" to that casino company by a landslide.
At the same time they almost passed Initiative measures that would
have distributed the money and the power throughout hundreds of
local governments. In 2006 Boyd Casinos of Las Vegas tried to
use Nebraska's petition process do about the exact same thing the
other Vegas casino failed to accomplish in 2004. Boyd was
tripped up in the Court system.
Who can blame
Boyd or Las Vegas? There is a $400,000,000 per year
prize on the table that Nebraskans can't seem to figure out how to
get for themselves. Nebraskans can't even agree if they want it or
not. Even after over $100,000,000 per year in taxes, that
prize is big enough to bait all comers from Las Vegas for as long as
it takes. Sooner or later, the odds are one of them will run
away with the jackpot. As
things are now, the winner will also likely get tremendous
political power as a bonus prize and will have enough liquid cash to
be a formidable force in Nebraska politics for generations.
The potential of such wealth and power causes Vegas based
proposals to cleverly limit the number of casinos under the guise of
“limiting the evils of gambling”, while always surreptitiously
setting the stage for the instigator to be awarded a casino monopoly
in state's highest population area.
Such out-of-state mischief is invited by a 1875
rule in the Nebraska Constitution that treats gaming matters
different from absolutely every other matter of legislation.
It says "The Legislature shall not authorize divorce or
any game of chance". Although
the divorce part was repealed long ago, the gaming prohibition lives
on, beckoning dreams of monopoly power to dance in the heads of
distant casino bosses. Is it time that the rule be repealed?
Is the rule inviting far greater evil than it was intended to
prevent? Is there a way
that all Nebraskan's can share the prize? Will Nebraskan's
"get it right" or end up as just another side dish on a
Las Vegas banquet table?Keep
the Money in Nebraska! It is all about Nebraska Values! |
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