"Let's learn from surrounding states like Iowa, South Carolina, and Louisiana who have seen the devastation first hand of video keno slot machines." These were the words that Rabbi Jonathan Gross of Omaha's Beth Israel Synagogue said last Friday, October 6th, as a group of religious leaders came out against a ballot initiative to allow video keno. They appeared at news conferences in Lincoln and Omaha announcing their opposition to the video Keno Measure on the November 7 ballot.
"If ... 421 passes ... every bar and every restaurant with a keno license will be able to put a row of video keno slot machines in their waiting area, around the bar and at your table," stated Amelia Den Hartog of the Alliance of Hispanic Pastors and Ministers of Nebraska.
On the November 7 ballot, this petition will appear as Initiative 421. The keno petition was circulated by a group of Keno parlor operators around 140 counties, cities, villages including Omaha and Lincoln where keno is allowed.
Previously, arguments at the Nebraska Supreme Court were heard, in a case to keep the keno issue off the ballot.
The case started when Judge Earl Wittoff, a Lancaster county District Judge ruled and dismissed the lawsuit filed by a Lincoln Business owner, Scott Stewart, claiming that the measure was banned by the state constitution, which limits submitting similar ballot proposals more than once in three years.
Thursday, October 19 , 2006
John M. Thorpe
