The proposal related to legalizing casino games in Nebraska is not going to be put on the general election ballot, scheduled for November. That was the announcement made by John Gale, the Nebraska Secretary of State.
The petition that was going to expand the games of chance on the territory of the state did not manage to collect enough valid signatures and as a result, the issue will not make it to the November’s ballot.
According to the information presented by Mr. Gale, the organizers of the petition have submitted a total of 119,666 signatures. However, as many as 41,710 were not verified by the authorities. In order to be included in November’s vote, the petition needed to collect at least 117,188 valid signatures.
During the last 10 months, organizers of the petition have spent the amount of $1.4 million on various activities related to the gambling expansion issue. Ho-Chunk Inc. was the main sponsor of the petition. The company wanted to reopen the race track at South Sioux City that was closed 4 years ago. Running a fully-fledged casino was also included in their plans.
Lance Morgan, Ho-Chunk CEO, commented on the announcement and said that it had come as a huge disappointment not only to the company but to the entire community. He emphasized that a great number of residents supported the petition. Mr. Morgan said that even though the idea of a casino in Nebraska was not embraced by the locals in the past, now it enjoyed a great support and added that he was shocked by the number of signatures declared invalid. Despite the disappointment, however, organizers were trying to figure out the reason for the huge number of invalid signatures.
Scott Lautenbaugh, the spokesman of the campaign, said that the group was going to review the verification process the signatures went through and the next steps will be based on the outcome of the review. He said that the organizers did not expect such a great percentage of invalid signatures, so they were going to dedicate as much time as needed to figure out what went wrong.
Nebraska residents are currently allowed to take part in horse racing, lottery, and keno games. The idea for casino games legalization attracted a lot of proponents as well as opponents who claimed that the casino games cannot be regarded as an economy driver as they will lead to increased social expenses.
