Evening star., 1938-10-09
GAMBLING BASIS .
Of PENSION PLAN
Nebraska to Vote on New
Scheme for Slot Machines
to Aid AGED.

OMAHA, Nebr., Oct. 8 (N.AN.A)-
A proposal to legalise and license slot
machine gambling for the ostensible
purpose Of providing revenue to pay
old-age pensions will confront Nebraska
voters at the polls November 8.
The proposed constitutional amend
ment was placed on the ballot by
petitions signed by more than $4,000
voters. So quietly was the petition
campaign carried on that few Nebras-
'ksns were aware the issue would be
Joined until the petitions were flled.
Then the State awoke. What 1t dis
covered was that the petitions had
been circulated by an organization
which called itself the Old Age Assist
ance and Public Welfare Association;
that the petitions had represented the
measure to be primarily a welfare,
rather than a gambling, matter; and
that the president of the sponsoring
organization was a Lincoln sports
man" who had once owned a pool hall
and had recently been arrested for
operating a race horse bookie estab-
lishment. This was his first recorded
venture into the field of public welfare.
Plan Is Opposed.
The outcry was immediate Churches,
American Legion posts, chambers of
commerce and other civic organiza-
tions hastened to 60 on record against
legal slot machines 1t was too late,
however, to keep the proposal of the
ballot.
The petitions, which many old folks
signed. did not refer to slot machines
by that name, and hackers OF the
amendment proposed title wording
for the ballot that referred to the
licensing Of "coin-operated skill ma
Chimes as
Under pressure of aroused public
opinion and unanimously hostile
press. the attorney general rewrote this
version and went into court to defend
his literary efforts. AS the title finally
went on the ballot, it proposed to
'lieense slot machines and other
machines OF chance" the court holding
that not much skill was involved in
what one of the judges called "one-
armed bandits"
AS they studied the amendment
further, Nebraskans learned that slot
machines. If the amendment passed
would be licensed at the rate OF s., 900
for the first machine owned and $40
year for each additional machine
Another clause, they discovered,
amended local home rule charters by
prohibiting any local government from
'levying more than $40 year occupa-
tion tax on each machine. thus effec-
lively eliminating any hope that in
dividual communities might keep slot
machines out by prohibitive taxes.
Revenue to Be Small. =
This made two things clear: First,
that the amount of revenue available
for old-age pensions would be small:
second. that the amendment would
discourage ownership OF machines by
small dealers and encourage opera
tion Of large syndicates which could
afford to pay the high initial license
fee. =
Assistant Attorney General Barlow
Nye expressed common fear when,
In arguments to the court during the
battle over title wording, he said the
amendment would make it possible for
slot machine operators from Chicago
or Philadelphia to come into the State
to operate the new racket.
Backers Of the amendment are
making no open campaign as yet and
some of them are reported to have de-
,cided that, as result OF the wide
publicity, their cause is lost Officers
Of bona fide old-age pension organi-
cations have denounced the amend
ment as fraud and the press has
emphasized the argument that. as a
revenue measure, it Is joke 1t has
been said that the best way to get
revenue for the aged from slot ma
chimes would be to give every needy
old person q slot machine instead of
o pension.
,tCopyrisht. 1893. by the North American
Newspspe Alliance, Inc)