Change to keno operation advanced

A bill that would permit players to access keno tickets from a machine was amended and advanced from general file May 9.

LB490, introduced by Wilber Sen. Russ Karpisek, originally would have reduced the minimum time between keno games from five minutes to one minute.

A General Affairs Committee amendment debated March 14 would have removed the time reduction between games. The amendment instead would have incorporated provisions of another Karpisek bill, LB681, to create the Live Horseracing Endowment Fund to support purses for live thoroughbred race meets at Nebraska racetracks. The endowment fund would have been funded by a portion of the state’s keno tax.

During May 9 debate, Karpisek offered an amendment to the committee amendment that removed all changes except allowing players to access keno tickets from a machine. Karpisek said senators made clear to him after the previous debate that an attempt to assist the horse racing industry through keno proceeds was problematic.

“The sticking point with LB490 appeared to be the horse racing component,” he said. “All this [amendment] does is leave the kiosk for the operators to use if they would like to.”

Following adoption of the Karpisek amendment 30-0, lawmakers adopted the committee amendment and advanced the bill, both on 31-0 votes.