As some of you may have read in an old post last Summer, I've been trying to get the senators in NE to consider leagalizing charity poker. I spent a lot of time researching how MI does charity poker and used that as my precedent on how it can be beneficial to the charities and businesses in the state. In NE though, we have no casinos and a few years ago when it came to a vote on whether or not to allow casinos, they were shot down. Well I was finally able to get a state senator to introduce charity poker into the General Affairs Committee. The bill isn't perfect but I worked with him on writing it so it has some flexibility to allow both tournaments and cash games. To overcome the objection that players will lose a lot of money, I suggested a 1k cap that a player can lose during a charity poker event. In MI, they have a 15 k limit on total money received for an event if I remember right and I thought a 1k limit would look good as it restricts the amount of money that can be lost and also would allow for a large tournament if one could be arranged.
Anyway, it's still a very long shot that this bill will make it to the point to where the people of NE get to vote on it but at least I appreciate the senator taking the time to at least try and introduce it. I don't have any lobbyists kicking money in to support it so that obviously hurts as well.
Here is the article on the Omaha.com website. I copied and pasted the text here as they don't seem to keep on their website articles for very long.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Playing poker for cash could move from the illegal underground to event halls operated by Nebraska nonprofit groups and others.
State Sen. Russ Karpisek of Wilber introduced a proposed constitutional amendment (LR296CA) to the Legislature on Tuesday that would legalize so-called charitable poker.
Under his plan, the same groups now allowed to have pickle-card games could hold poker events. The groups are nonprofits and volunteer fire departments.
Between half and 75 percent of the total amount of money generated at a poker event would go to the players, under Karpisek’s plan. The rest would go to the group conducting the event.
If OK’d by lawmakers, Karpisek’s proposal would go to voters for final approval in November.
I have a Facebook page set up for Legalizing Charity Poker in Nebraska (feel free to join) and also a website where I will try to post updated information and progress as I get. That website is http://www.legalizecharitypoker.com.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to improve my chances on making this happen, don't hesitate to send me an email - guppick at gmail.com.
I wish it was just an argument of skill vs luck but it's the fact that it's gambling and these senators think no matter what good comes from it that we shouldn't have it.
Brian Pick
Omaha, NE