Omaha, Neb. ? Casinos could draw more people from out of town and convention business to Omaha, but tourism officials don’t expect the city to be transformed into a Middle West Las Vegas.

“If I’m driving across America and I have my wife and two kids in the back of the car, would we stop in Omaha because of the casino? Maybe,” Carl Winston, director of the Hospitality and Tourism Management Program at San Diego State University. “Is it going to be a tourism boon? I wouldn’t bet on it.”

Casinos can be an amenity to a region and be a place for people to visit when they are in town for a convention or on business, he said.

“But I think it’s a little of a reach to say because there’s now a casino people are going to go out of their way to go to Omaha,” Winston said.

No Las Vegas

There are two competing plans on the Nov. 2 ballot to legalize casinos in Nebraska. Amendment 3 would allow two casinos in the state, with locations to be figured out later. Initiatives 417 through 420 would specify two casinos in Omaha, with an additional 4,900 video poker and slot machines at locations throughout the state.

Even backers of legalizing casinos say casinos in Omaha would not change the city into a Vegas-type attraction.

“I think any casino that claims it will be a destination is completely misguided,” said Julia Plucker, spokeswoman for the Keep the Money in Nebraska coalition, which circulated petitions to get the initiatives on the ballot. “I doubt if people from Maine will drive to Omaha because of the casino.”

Good for business?

However, having a casino in downtown Omaha, near the new convention center and Hilton Hotel, would help attract business to the city, said Phil Young, campaign coordinator in the effort to win approval of the Legislature’s gambling plan, Amendment 3.

One or two large destination-style casinos may not be something people plan their vacations around, he said, but they would have a better shot at attracting people from outside the state than allowing video slot machines in neighborhoods throughout Nebraska.

Casinos have been good for tourism in Iowa, said Wes Ehrecke, president and lobbyist for the Iowa Gaming Association, which promotes the benefits of Iowa’s gambling industry.

That state’s 13 commercial casinos draw 20 million visitors a year — 65 percent of which come from outside of Iowa — and are the state’s largest tourist attraction, he said.

“It’s certainly been a catalyst for economic development,” Ehrecke said of Iowa’s casinos, which employ 8,800 people. There are three commercial casinos located just across the Missouri River from Omaha in Council Bluffs.

Great divide

The Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce isn’t taking a position on the gambling proposals.

“Our members are very divided on this issue and we do not intend to get involved,” said Natalie Peetz, vice president for public policy for the chamber.

Likewise, the Nebraska tourism office also is staying out of it and not taking a public position. But that doesn’t mean the issue doesn’t come up.

“I know that when we work travel shows people ask what there is to see and do in Nebraska,” said Mary Ethel Emanuel, public relations director for the Nebraska Division of Tourism. “Often questions are ‘Is there gambling in Nebraska?”‘

The experience of other states is that adding casinos does generate more tourism — which in Nebraska is defined by someone traveling at least 100 miles from home and spending money, Emanuel said.

Last year travelers who took trips in Nebraska at least 100 miles away from their homes spent $2.8 billion, according to the state tourism office. Most of those people came from Kansas, Iowa, Colorado, Missouri, South Dakota, Illinois and Minnesota.

Most trips to the state are for long weekends close to home, Emanuel said.

Nebraska has other things to offer in the way of tourism. There’s the Great Platte River Archway Monument in Kearney. Husker football. The Strategic Air Command Museum. The Henry Doorly Zoo. Sandhill cranes.