On October 17th, 2007, the manager of the McCook Keno LLC said that the state-of-the art technology that is utilized today with keno computers makes it very difficult to do something questionable at the games and staff who work at keno facilities should be allowed to participate in the game.
The city council of McCook agreed and in a 3 to 2 vote, allowed employees to get back a modified city code to show the change. The city code does not allow staff that works at a keno outlet from playing the game.
Council member Lonnie Anderson and Jack Rogers decided against the amendment and Mayor Dennis Berry and Council members Aaron Kircher and Colleen Grant. After the modified code is bought back in front of the council at a meeting, it will need three sessions before it is passed.
Mike Nevrivy, who manages keno in 7 to 8 areas in Nebraska like the Rockin' Robin's Overtime Bar, petitioned the City Council to consider modifying the city ordinance to permit employees who work at keno establishments to participate in the keno game. He added that McCook's keno code was made back in 1992, when the present anti-cheating technology was not yet made.
There are now Random Number Game chips put in the computers by gambling commission to makes sure that this scenario would not happen. Nevrivy said that the numbers cannot be easily accessed and if the chip is tampered in any way, it will stop the whole game. Councilman Aaron Kircher agrees on Nevrivy's plea.
Nevrivy stated that he has never received a complaint from either their customers or staff about giving permission to employees to play keno. He did inquire about the law including the language that would not allow those who retail keno tickets to play keno one hour before the game or after, as a safeguard if by any possibility they should hit a big amount of cash.
Councilman Jack Rogers said that in his opinion, no modification was needed. But Councilman Kircher said that there was no security problem with the brand new keno machine and the rules was made when the keno machines could be tampered with.
Nevrivy said that he was advised by the state gaming commission that it is difficult to cheat with the machines and that it was just the fear of being not informed that made people wary. Mayor Berry said he would like the community to not have keno but the state-of-the art technology would surely secure the whole gaming process.
[05-11]
John M. Thorpe
