Casino backers ready to vote

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By Nancy Hicks

Lobbyists for gambling interests that spent almost $600,000 last year will be back in the Capitol Rotunda next week, watching as senators take up casino gambling again.

Supporters of a constitutional amendment that would allow casino gambling in Nebraska believe they have the 33 votes required to break a filibuster led by Gering Sen. Adrian Smith and move LR14CA to a final vote.

"It looks very promising," Sen. DiAnna Schimek of Lincoln said Thursday.

Supporters are ready to resume debate on the measure next week, she said. Senators spent several days last month debating the proposed constitutional amendment.

If senators move to end the filibuster, they still would have a chance to vote on several amendments before a vote to move the measure to the third and final stage of debate. Those amendments would reduce the number of casinos allowed from eight to five, provide for a vote of the people before a casino could open in their county and require that all casinos be authorized by the Legislature.

A cloture vote will not necessarily stop debate this year, said Smith, who has offered more than a dozen amendments. He said he can continue the debate on his amendments during the third and final stage of debate.

Supporters need votes from 25 of the 49 senators to move the proposal to the next round of debate. And they need 30 votes on final passage to get it on the November statewide ballot.

Senators are feeling pressure to put their own version of expanded gambling on the statewide ballot since several private groups have said they plan to collect signatures to get their proposals for expanded gambling on the ballot.

The best funded, a coalition of casinos and keno interests, have raised $400,000 for a petition drive on four separate petitions that would collectively create two casinos in Omaha, slot machine parlors along Interstate 80 and U.S. 81, and video gambling in bars throughout the state.

Gambling interests also spent almost $600,000 last year lobbying at the state Legislature, based on reports to the Clerk of the Legislature. That's about twice as much as they spent during the 2002 session.

Most of the same groups are lobbying again this year.

Gambling interests have been spending big money on lobbying state senators for nine years, according to Omaha Sen. Jim Jensen, a gambling opponent. When casino gambling first came, he said, gambling interests spent more than $400,000 lobbying the Legislature that year.

This kind of spending has been around for awhile, he said.

The money being spent this year is small potatoes compared with what gambling interests will spend once the state allows casino, he said. Expanded gambling will be a full employment bill for lobbyists, he said.

Smith agreed hundreds of thousands of dollars likely will be spent on election campaigns once casinos can operate in the state.

Just one of the groups lobbying on gambling-related issues last year represented the antigambling sentiment. That group, Gambling with the Good Life, spent less than $2,000.

Those supporting expanded gambling represent a variety of interests and some disagreement on what kind of new gambling Nebraska should allow. They generally fall into four groups.

Keno businesses and communities that allow keno would like to see video gambling allowed across the state. Nonprofit groups that make money from pickle cards would like to be able to sponsor video gambling. Out-of-state casinos want the opportunity to open a casino in Nebraska. And horse-racing interests want whatever gambling is available also allowed at racetracks.

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@;journalstar.com.