To Whom It May Concern

Gambling Issue Up For The Vote

Nebraska is now voting on whether or not to allow gambling. This is coming up in the general election. Years ago, I would have probably been against this, because of the problems associated with gambling, and because of my upbringing. But now, well, as you get older you begin to notice that life itself is a collection of associated gambles that you take, and that banning a form of gambling merely because of it's simplistic form (placing money bets to gain more money), is rather foolish.

Not only that, but Nebraska allows certain forms of gambling. The lottery is in Nebraska, Nebraska allows pickle cards, and on American Indian casinos, gambling is legal. Also, betting on horse racing is legal in Nebraska. Probably the most ridiculous thing of all is this: Just across the river from Omaha, gambling is legal in the state of Iowa. There are more than 1 million Nebraskans in a 60 mile radius west from Omaha, who are estimated to have spent somewhere from 30 to 60 million dollars in the Council Bluffs casinos. Every state around Nebraska allows gambling.

So basically Nebraskans have all the trouble associated with gambling problems, but we get none of the revenue to help those people, or to bolster our educational needs, roads, tax burdens, etc. My worry though, is that there are so many ultra-conservative that live within this state, that the initiative will fail at the ballot box. What is funny about the whole thing, is that the anti gambling groups seem to have an unbelievable amount of money with which to advertise and promote voting NO to this initiative.

While this doesn't make sense at first, ask yourself this: If gambling were suddenly allowed in Omaha, and that exact replica of the Luxor, the pyramid casino from Las Vegas, was built (yes, this is on it's way, simply waiting for this particular initiative to be voted on), who would lose out the most? The Iowa casinos within Council Bluffs, that's who.

Someone donated more than half a million dollars to the anti-gambling movements within Nebraska. Now while these donations are anonymous, lets look at something to try and sort out just exactly who may have donated that money. Roughly 58,000 people live in Council Bluffs. That is about 1/20th of the number of people that live within that 60 mile section of Nebraska, from Omaha into Lincoln. Now, if the Luxor II (I am just putting that name there, no idea what it would be called) were built, a casino by even the most conservative viewpoint is far and away better than anything Council Bluffs has to offer, why would those 1 million Nebraskans even consider going across the river? Not only that, but those 58,000 in Council Bluffs might just find the Luxe or other gambling establishments within Nebraska more attractive. This would basically kill the gambling in western Iowa.

It's time that Nebraska realizes the truth about gambling, that it's people are already gambling, both figuratively and realistically, and vote yes on an initiative that will keep the money within our borders.