OTHER VOICES: Nebraska must be smart about what casino operations it allows – Sioux City Journal

As CEO of Ho-Chunk Inc., I have been deeply involved in the Keep the Money in Nebraska campaign, which was successful in getting Nebraska voters to authorize expanded gaming at Nebraskas existing six horse tracks.

The existing tracks are located at Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, South Sioux City, Columbus and Hastings. A big part of the campaign messaging was that tying the expansion to the horse tracks was going to be a limited and rational approach to gaming expansion in Nebraska.

Our plan was simple: We would build a few strong casinos at the states existing tracks and use some of the gambling proceeds to support more horse races with stronger purses. This would be an economic and tax boost for the state and the cities where the tracks were located. The operations would also bring back to Nebraska some of the gaming revenue lost to surrounding states. In addition, the expanded horse racing would also be an added income source for rural Nebraska because the horses will need to be bred, fed and trained.

Casino gambling is legal in every state that touches Nebraska. Since we are very late to the gaming party, we are going to need to come out strong with large-scale, amenity-rich facilities to compete with the surrounding states. The Iowa casinos in Council Bluffs are certainly not going to just roll over. They are run by international gaming corporations with very deep pockets. Ho-Chunk Inc. intends to invest more than $500 million in Omaha and Lincoln alone. I believe the WarHorse Lincoln facility will be the largest single real estate project in Lincolns history.

There is a problem, though. Earlier this year, several new tracks were proposed. At some point, a few tracks might make sense in areas of the state that dont have any representation, but tracks proposed in Bellevue and York are problematic for several reasons.

The big three tracks are in Omaha, Lincoln and Grand Island. These are tracks that have kept the racing industry alive and are the tracks that will lead the revival of the industry. It is important to understand that these tracks are owned by benevolent horse associations, not individuals or large corporations.

Individually owned tracks proposed in Bellevue and York are just opportunists trying to get a free ride on the hard work of the existing tracks. If new horse tracks are built in those cities, it will greatly diminish the gaming revenue at the big three tracks. If the market is divided into small slices, the existing tracks will then have to scale back before they even have started construction. These smaller facilities will have trouble competing with the casinos in Iowa and other surrounding states, which will defeat one of the original premises of the Keep the Money in Nebraska campaign.

I realize I run a company with the rights to develop three of the largest markets in Nebraska, however, I think simple economics supports my approach. We need to be strategic when considering expansion. We need to allow the long-suffering existing tracks to build and stabilize their gaming operations. We should then examine what parts of the state might benefit from one or two more facilities without cannibalizing and weakening existing facilities.

Iowa has taken a very calculated approach to expansion. Iowa has conducted several economic studies over the years and the two primary factors in expansion are preventing cannibalization of existing facilities and whether the new facilities could attract customers from surrounding states, like Nebraska.

As a Husker fan, I have trouble writing this next part, but I believe Nebraska needs to follow a similar approach as Iowa, which limits unwise, unwarranted and unwanted gaming expansion. Casinos in Iowa almost killed horse racing in Nebraska. If we are not careful with gaming expansion, we might kill horse racing again before it even starts.

Lance Morgan is a member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and the CEO of Ho-Chunk Inc. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Harvard Law School.

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OTHER VOICES: Nebraska must be smart about what casino operations it allows - Sioux City Journal