On August 14th, 2008, the drop in Hall County keno betting in June was back up for the month of July. Stacey Ruzicka, the Hall County Keno administrator said that it was very short lived. Betting in June, at a total of $375, market a thirty-two percent drop from May's betting of $551,000.
County officials speculated that the June 1st, 2008 enforcement of a city wide smoking ban in Grand Island was the main reason. But Ruzicka said that betting in July improved by thirty-nine percent over June, to just more than $520,000. Ruzicka commented that the smoking bans in other communities have initially led to drops in sales at businesses around the area, but sales improved after a few months. Ruzicka said the same may be happening in Grand Island in regard to keno sales.
The county will need a few more months of betting data to tell if the keno numbers will stay in their current level. But not everyone in the county believes that the drop was the cause of the smoking ban. Brent Lindner, the owner of the Bonzai Beach Club, who runs a satellite keno club, traces the decline to the weakening economy, including the high food and fuel prices. Hall County board Chairman Bud Jefferies has another belief for the drop in June.
A total of 9.8 inches of rain drop in Grand Island in June, according to the National Weather Service office in Hastings. It caused a lot of flooded basements and property damage around the county. Todd Otto of Fonner Keno said that there are a lot of factors that are at play here that affects the performance of keno but he thinks that the smoking ban had some effect because all locations had a drop.
Fonner Keno manages their main game at Fonner Park with 6 satellite locations at Bonzai Beach Club, the Chicken Coop, Ole Cow Palace, Bosselman's Travel Center, Balz Sports Bar and the Platt-Duetsche.
[03-09]
Louis Blechdom
