SINCE 1995
Our History of Fighting for Nebraska
For over three decades, Gambling With The Good Life has stood between Nebraska families and the predatory gambling industry. Here is our record — year by year.
We fought 4 gambling bills all the way up to the last day and none were passed.
A Constitutional amendment to put "Horse Slots" on the ballot passed the Legislature. GWGL challenged it in the courts and the Supreme Court agreed with us and threw it out — another miracle. LB 273 would have changed Keno game times from five minutes to two minutes between games — a 40% increase to 20 games per hour. The faster the game, the faster the addiction and the more money lost by players. LR 41CA was a Constitutional Amendment which would have allowed "Horse Slots" at all race tracks in Nebraska, opening the door to Native American casinos and other casinos throughout the state.
The gambling forces proposed numerous expanded gambling bills before the Legislature. While several bills remained in committee, two major expanded gambling bills made it to the floor of the Legislature and were approved on first reading. We won again.
This was one of our hardest years ever with two bills that were highly contested in the Legislature. The Keno operators wanted to reduce the time between games from 5 minutes to 1 minute, thus allowing more gambling. The horse tracks returned for another attempt to allow horse slots at their tracks. GWGL narrowly defeated the Keno bill, and the horse slots went down to the final day but ultimately lost by "1" vote. It was an exhausting session.
GWGL fought and defeated three expanded gambling bills in the Legislature.
GWGL faced four expanded gambling bills in the Legislature: off track betting; enhanced Keno; poker parlors; and horse slots. After much testimony and days of debates, all were defeated.
The Ponca Indian Tribe appealed the court decision but it was upheld on the basis that the tribe had lied to the state of Iowa. They stated that the land would never be used for a casino if Iowa would agree to allow the land to be put in trust. The Ponca tribe appealed to the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) in Washington D.C. and awaited a verdict.
The Ponca Indian Tribe announced plans to build a huge casino in Carter Lake, Iowa — a small strip of land encircled by Nebraska — on non-tribal land purchased for a clinic (which they never operated) but paid for with Nebraska taxpayer money. GWGL blew the whistle and formed a Nebraska/Iowa alliance to stop the project. A federal judge ruled against the casino plan.
The gambling interests again returned to the Legislature with more expanded gambling proposals, but none succeeded in getting out of committee due to the efforts of GWGL and the results of the previous year's election defeat. GWGL conducted a Scholarship Contest to educate youth on the dangers of gambling addiction. Students participated from thirty-three Nebraska cities with nine scholarships being awarded totaling $18,000.
After Keno interests endured eight failed attempts in the Legislature to allow slot machines in their businesses, they ran a petition drive to place the issue on the ballot. GWGL again launched an all-out educational campaign opposing unlimited slots at over 600 locations. The proposal went down to defeat by 61% of voters statewide.
GWGL fought off numerous attempts to expand gambling in the Legislature.
Two casino proposals were on the ballot — one by vote of the Nebraska Legislature and one through the petition process. GWGL successfully organized the largest coalition in the state, which defeated both proposals. Between the two of them, the Las Vegas Coast Casino and Venetian Casino spent $7 million dollars, outspending GWGL 25-to-1. It was truly a miracle that the ballot issues failed by as much as 65%! Warren Buffett taped a 30-minute fireside chat for GWGL opposing gambling which is still in use nationwide today.
The Nebraska Supreme Court upheld the judge's 2002 decision regarding the use of invalid Keno ballot language on the petition.
GWGL filed a lawsuit challenging the 2001 Keno petition. A judge ruled against the petition stating that it violated the "single subject" rule. Lawmakers debated the issue of allowing Native Americans to establish casinos, but the measure failed to pass.
Bar owners launched a petition drive to allow slot machines in bars. GWGL began an educational campaign to inform the voters of the ramifications of the proposal, causing a failed effort to gather the needed signatures. Keno operators also ran a petition to allow video slots. Although they got the number of signatures needed, the petition was flawed with numerous errors in ballot language.
GWGL worked in the Legislature to defeat a bill which would have allowed casinos on Native American property. Nebraska has four Native American tribes which would have allowed casinos to explode in Nebraska.
Several bills were introduced but failed to pass the Legislature.
The Nebraska Supreme Court upheld a lower court's ruling in favor of GWGL.
GWGL returned to the Legislature to testify and defeat expanded gambling bills.
Coach Tom Osborne became the honorary chairman of GWGL and helped to defeat a casino bill in the Legislature by a margin of 36 to 9, despite opposition by highly paid lobbyists. Howard Buffett returned to the state to speak on behalf of GWGL to numerous civic groups and the press. The gambling industry launched a statewide petition drive to allow casinos but the numerous false signatures were successfully challenged in court by GWGL so their petition never made the ballot. We became the only state in the union to defeat expanded gambling 4 times in one year — in the Legislature, the petition process, in the court, and finally at the ballot box when an off-track betting bill was soundly defeated.
Gambling with the Good Life (GWGL) was established for the purpose of opposing any attempt at expanding gambling in Nebraska. The gambling industry wanted to replace the now highly visible Ak-Sar-Ben property with a huge casino. This first attempt by the gambling industry to bring slot machines and casinos to Nebraska was defeated by a very small margin in the Legislature.
The Fight Continues
Initiative 429 passed in 2020, but our work is not finished. Join us as we continue to protect Nebraska families from the devastation of expanded gambling.