OMAHA WORLD HERALD February8,2004
THE “ FEAR FACTOR”

 

 

Nebraska's lawmakers seem needlessly rattled by pro-gambling petition moves.

Pro-gambling forces made headway in the Nebraska Legislature last week. A bill that would allow a ballot measure for up to eight casinos in the state garnered significant support. Many of the lawmakers appear to be convinced that the Legislature needs to take action now in order to steal a march on ballot petitions that are being sponsored by private gambling interests.

In other words, the Legislature's casino debate is being shaped in large part by what could be termed the "Fear Factor."

Such concerns are ill-founded. As past experience in Nebraska shows, gaining a sizable number of signatures for a petition is by no means a guarantee that it will attain final passage in the November general election.

Consider what happened in 1998. A petition circulated for Initiative 413 would have restrained the Legislature's spending power. During the petition phase, the measure gained significant support (roughly as many signatures as did a 2002 pro-gambling petition that Nebraska courts later found invalid).

But when Nebraska voters rendered their final decision on Initiative 413 in the November 1998 balloting, the story was quite different: The measure went down to defeat by a 2-to-1 ratio.

If legislators are looking for something to be afraid of in Nebraska's gambling debate, they should be concerned about the social costs as well as the economic harm to small businesses.

Just last year, a report by the state's program to combat gambling addiction stated categorically that "expanded gambling opportunities in the form of casino gambling will have the effect of increasing the number of those seeking treatment." Nebraska falls well short of being able to treat the problem gamblers it already has, let alone increased numbers of them.

In addition, Ernie Goss, an economist at Creighton University, told Old Market merchants late last year that locating a casino in downtown Omaha would be economically comparable to a "neutron bomb - destroying all human life." He was referring to the way in which casinos divert a large chunk of discretionary consumer spending away from retailers and restaurants.

Regrettably, it appears that such concerns aren't resonating with enough legislators. But these concerns aren't make-believe. They're not the imaginings of anti-gambling fanatics. They are realities, and their existence isn't about to be wished away.

If gambling is expanded here as the legislative bill proposes, these realities will land very hard on Nebraska communities. That's something lawmakers should consider thoroughly before their next vote on the casino bill.

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