Neb. lawmakers nix horse-gambling proposal

By NATE JENKINS

LINCOLN, Neb.

Nebraska lawmakers, unmoved by arguments that horse racing could die without their help, decided Thursday that residents shouldn't vote on whether to allow more betting on simulcast horse races.

The vote by the Legislature not to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot signaled how recent statewide elections where expanded-gambling plans were nixed have made lawmakers wary of gambling-related measures. Also, a similar measure was rejected by Nebraskans in 1996.

The withering horse industry in the state, supporters of the measure said, could crumble.

Without a replacement track in Lincoln that could have been built with increased simulcast-gambling revenues under the measure, "they will not make it," said Sen. Russ Karpisek of Wilber, the measure's sponsor.

"If nothing is done to help horse racing, we will likely lose the industry altogether," he said during legislative debate Thursday.

The Lincoln racetrack, the state's busiest, is expected to close in a few years.

His measure would have allowed betting on televised, simulcast horse races from around the country at facilities approved at the city or county level. Nebraska is one of just six horse-racing states that ban simulcast betting at locations besides horse tracks.

Unlike those states, expanded gambling involving devices such as slot machines is also barred in Nebraska, making its tracks among the nation's most restrictive. Horse-racing supporters say that has hurt the industry in the state.

Some lawmakers said the state has tried to help the industry, and it's not the Legislature's job to bail it out.

"We give them tax breaks, we give them everything we can and they still can't make it," said Sen. John Harms of Scottsbluff.

Without more simulcast betting and the promise of a new Lincoln track, some of the state's approximately 200 thoroughbred horse breeders have said they'll stop breeding animals in Nebraska and possibly leave the state, said Marlene Roush, executive director of the Nebraska Thoroughbred Association, based in Grand Island.

"They're nervous," she said.

About 2,500 people in the state have jobs related to horse racing, Karpisek said.

Karpisek and the measure's supporters tried to ease concerns that the proposal amounted to expanded gambling by stressing that betting on simulcasted races is already allowed. Even if the constitution was amended in a statewide vote, they stressed, local voters would have to sign off on allowing simulcast horse racing in their communities.

But some lawmakers didn't completely buy the arguments.

"We keep getting comments we're not expanding gambling -- I disagree," said Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial.

"We'll have more locations, we'll have more gambling, we'll have more people with a gambling problem," he said.

The existing Lincoln racetrack is expected to close sometime after 2012 because of the Legislature's decision to move the Nebraska State Fair to Grand Island.

The Lincoln track is at Lincoln's State Fair Park, which is being taken over by the University of Nebraska to build a public-private research park.