It's likely to be months before Lincoln casino, others can get licenses
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That whir of spinning reels from slot machines is still seemingly months away.
It's been 10 months since Nebraska voters approved casino gambling at the state's horse racing tracks, and while prospective operators have rolled out spiffy videos of planned casinos in Lincoln and other cities, those facilities aren't much closer to reality than they were last November.
Tom Sage, executive director of the Racing and Gaming Commission, said "it's gonna take some time" for the process to unfold.
Sage declined to speculate last week on when the commission will vote on its first casino application, but conceded that it's likely several months away.
"It's a slow process," he told the Journal Star.
The approval process is in its infancy, with the commission having just received a report from a consultant it hired to help write the rules and regulations for casino gaming in the state.
Sage said the report, from Gaming Labs International, will be reviewed over the next week.
During Friday's Racing and Gaming Commission meeting, Sage told commissioners he hopes to have proposed gaming statutes available soon.
A public comment period will follow before the proposed rules will be placed on a future commission agenda for a public hearing and vote, something that seems unlikely to happen until at least November.
