Protect Nebraska From Unlimited Casinos

The 2020 election is shaping up to be the most critical election in our lifetime. In Nebraska, this includes the decision of whether or not to legalize casino gambling.

Gambling initiative measures 429, 430, and 431 are bad for families, bad for business, and bad for Nebraska.

If successful, these initiatives would legalize all forms of gambling across Nebraska, create a monopoly on casinos for a few wealthy gambling operators, establish a paid, unelected gambling commission, and set up a tax structure favorable to casino owners.

Casino gambling creates social costs that ruin lives, families, businesses, and communities. But gambling operators don’t pay for these harms. Taxpayers do.

While gambling operators are spending millions telling voters the initiatives only allow gambling at horse racetracks, they don’t tell people that a “racetrack” could offer casino gambling 24/7/365 by holding just one race per year, and that an unlimited number of “racetrack enclosures” could be built across the state.

But this proposal isn’t limited to just “racetracks.” By amending the Nebraska Constitution to allow every kind of gambling, Native American tribes would also be allowed to operate their own casinos. These casinos would be untaxed and unregulated by the state of Nebraska.

Casinos make the majority of their profits from problem and addicted gamblers. Their business model relies on addiction and suffering, which is why areas with casinos see increases in addiction, bankruptcy, broken families, and crime, including child neglect, domestic abuse, and sex-trafficking.

We’re called to love our neighbor, but the gambling initiatives on the ballot represent the antithesis of this principle.

We cannot protect the poor and vulnerable in our state while simultaneously inviting in an industry that relies on blatantly exploiting the poor and vulnerable.

We cannot end human-trafficking in Nebraska while simultaneously creating new hubs for sex-trafficking across our state.

And we cannot lower taxes by draining more money from local economies, driving people deeper into poverty, and increasing addiction, social costs, and destroyed families.

Initiatives 429, 430, and 431 are written by casinos, for casinos, and they’re a bad deal for Nebraska. That’s why we are urging Nebraskans to protect our constitution and our state by voting against 429, 430, and 431. 

Please consider forwarding this email to your friends and family, share our educational video on Facebook, and vote against 429, 430, and 431.

Also, please visit Nebraska Family Alliance’s nonpartisan, issues-based voter guide before you vote this election, and vote for the candidates who align with your values!