Group says that bill gambles with the good life

The grassroots group, Gambling with the Good Life is up in arms against an amendment on the Nebraska ballot this fall which it says would allow slot machines at horse tracks in the state.

LR41CA would allow those visiting Nebraska horse tracks to bet on recorded horse races through video machines. Although those playing the machines can bet on previous horse races with the identity of that race concealed, they can also play a slot-machine type game as well, the group argued.

There are only five licensed horse racing tracks in Nebraska right now, but many more could be licensed after this bill is passed, said Pat Loontjer executive director of Gambling with the Good Life. No matter what proponents of the amendment say, the group is adamant that these machines are no different than slot machines.

“They’re the most addictive form of gambling that there is,” Loontjer said. “And it’s the fastest form of gambling.”

A person can play 1,000 games in one hour on one of these machines, she said.

Those advocating for the machines say that the taxes from this gambling would go toward education and would contribute to property tax relief, but Loontjer’s group says that the public would see very little money.

Loontjer argued that due to tax exemptions for horse tracks the first $10 million spent at each track per year is untaxed, while the next $63 million a track makes is taxed at 2.5 percent with 2 percent going back to the track for improvements.

Those advocating the bill include the horse racing industry which says it will help it compete against casinos in neighboring states and the Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation because of horse racing’s strong ties with agriculture.

Even though the state’s five tracks are located in Omaha, Lincoln, Hastings, Grand Island and Columbus, this law will affect everyone in the state, including those in Sidney, Loontjer said.

“Your taxes are going to go up, because for every dollar a state gains in gambling revenue, it costs three dollars in social costs,” Loontjer said. “So the divorce rate goes up, the crime rate goes up, embezzlements.”

Most Nebraska tracks only run horses a few days per year and then simulcast races from other areas the majority of the time.

State Sen. Scott Laughtenbaugh who sponsored the amendment has previously argued that the proposed machines are not slot machines. Laughtenbaugh told the North Platte Telegraph that this did not expand gambling, but simply allows those already at the horse track to place bets on previous races using these electronic machines.

Dan Hazuka, another member of Gambling with the Good Life said that passing this initiative would open the door for Native American casinos in the state.

“The taxpayers are the ones that pick up the tab,” said another member of the group, Lyle Japp. “In other words, people are irresponsible, end up in jail, their families are poor and so welfare picks up the tab. And the things is, government should be protecting the people, not taking fences down and letting the wolves in.”

Every dollar spent on gambling, whether it be the lottery or Keno or horse races in the state is another dollar not spent on main street, Loontjer said.

“Now they call it gaming so they can get people to think it’s just a game,” Hazuka said. “But it’s a game that people lose everything in and families are destroyed and kids don’t eat.”

Loontjer, Hazuka and Japp formed Gambling with the Good Life in 1995 to work against a ballot initiative that would allow casinos in Nebraska. They’ve been working to stop what they call the attempted expansion of gambling in the state ever since.

Loontjer runs the organization out of her bedroom in Omaha.

“We’re not doing it for money,” Hazuka said. “We’re doing it to protect people, protect our state. We care about our state. We care about people in the communities.”

The group last fought a gambling initiative in 2006.

“We just consider it a miracle every time we win,” Loontjer said.

The three members agreed that this would be a tough fight because the gambling industry has money for television and radio advertisements that Gambling with the Good Life simply cannot afford.

“Me personally, I grew up in a home where my father gambled everything away as a young boy,” Hazuka said. “I got involved as a young man after I got out of the Army in book making, so I’ve seen all ends of gambling. I’ve seen it where I didn’t eat and we got thrown out of our house, we lost our furniture, we slept on floors.”

Japp was inspired to join the group because of his work as a financial planner.

“I try to help people build something for their retirement or for their family in case they died,” Japp said.

He’s seen many times when a man saved money all his life, only to lose it all to a family member with a gambling addiction. None of the group thought they’d still be fighting the gambling industry 19 years later when they started the group in 1995.

“We always say, they got the money but we’ve got the truth,” Hazuka said.