Keno Lottery

The McCook City Council is considering whether keno should be allowed to return to the city. A proposal for reviving keno lottery gambling was on the council’s Monday agenda. An organization which conducts the keno games contacted the city staff in response to Overtime expressing an interest in being a sales outlet for the keno game. No keno lottery game has been operated in the city since 1999, when the city terminated a contract with a different organization because of declining Keno revenue, ac-cording to the City Manger's report.

The lottery operator, Community Lottery Systems d/b/a Nebraska Lotto, would receive 14 percent of the proceeds of the game, with the outlet Overtime receiving six to seven percent from those proceeds. The Nebraska Department of Revenue would collect two percent, and 73 percent of the gross proceeds are distributed as prizes to the players. Municipality/county members would receive approximately 9.5 percent of the proceeds , which can be used by the City for "community betterment purposes" as defined by state law. McCook is located in Red Willow in southwest Nebraska.