{"id":30063,"date":"2021-04-21T09:54:49","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T15:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=30063"},"modified":"2021-04-21T09:54:49","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T15:54:49","slug":"electronic-keno-retained-casino-regulation-bill-advanced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=30063","title":{"rendered":"Electronic keno retained, casino regulation bill advanced"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bill that would implement provisions of a constitutional gaming amendment approved in 2020 advanced from select file April 20.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Tom Briese<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last November, Nebraska voters legalized all forms of games of chance at licensed horse racetracks through an initiative petition drive. LB561, as introduced by Sen. Tom Briese of Albion, would provide the regulatory framework necessary to implement that constitutional amendment.<\/p>\n

Among other provisions, the bill would rename the State Racing Commission to the State Racing and Gaming Commission, raise the legal age to wager on horse racing from 19 to 21, allow wagering on sporting events at racetracks in the state, establish a process for allowing individuals to be excluded voluntarily from wagering, establish a system for filing complaints and classify manipulation of a game of chance or gaming machine as a Class I misdemeanor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI drafted this bill in an attempt to clarify what Nebraskans approved in November and to establish some reasonable parameters around this activity,\u201d Briese said.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers adopted an amendment during first-round debate that would allow individuals to play keno on an electronic ticket purchased at a licensed lottery operator using an app or debit card linked to a bank account. Currently, keno tickets must be purchased on a paper ticket with cash.<\/p>\n

The provision was intended to lessen the impact of casino gaming on the state\u2019s keno industry.
\nBriese offered an amendment during select file debate that would remove that provision from LB561.<\/p>\n

The General Affairs Committee held a hearing on the keno provision during which, Briese said, testifiers could not demonstrate that allowing Nebraskans to play keno virtually would benefit the industry. He also said some Nebraskans believe that allowing virtual keno would expand gaming beyond what voters intended.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of respect for that perception, and the lack of verifiable data that this will help the industry, I decided to pull the keno portion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha said he opposed the amendment because regulation is needed to prevent municipalities from losing keno revenue, which is earmarked for community betterment projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeno is going to lose revenue, there\u2019s no question about that, the question is how much?\u201d Cavanaugh said. \u201cIf we do not help those [cities] weather the storm of this expanded gambling, then they\u2019re going to lose the necessary revenue and they\u2019re going to have to find it some place else.\u201d<\/p>\n

The amendment, which needed 25 votes to be adopted, failed 22-11.<\/p>\n

Briese introduced a second amendment, adopted 39-0, that would require rulemaking to be conducted under the Administrative Procedures Act rather than by the Nebraska Racing and Gaming Commission.<\/p>\n

The amendment also would prohibit wagering on high school or youth sports, the use of credit cards to place wagers, wagering by coaches and athletes and in-game wagers on University of Nebraska games and any other sport deemed ineligible by the commission.<\/p>\n

Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks offered an amendment that would prohibit all wagering on collegiate sports that take place in Nebraska. She said gambling on college sports places undue pressure on student athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that betting on Nebraska college games \u2014 in state \u2014 is harmful to our kids and harmful to the integrity, passion and fun of our college sports,\u201d Pansing Brooks said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Adam Morfeld of Lincoln opposed the amendment, saying that bets already are being made on Nebraska athletics. With LB561, he said, the state can collect revenue on those wagers.<\/p>\n

The amendment failed 18-13.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers then advanced LB561 to final reading on a voice vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill that would implement provisions of a constitutional gaming amendment approved in 2020 advanced from select file April 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[185],"class_list":["post-30063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-affairs","tag-sen-tom-briese"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30064,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30063\/revisions\/30064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}