Harrah’s Nebraska approved to open for business May 13

Harrah’s Nebraska will open its doors at 10 a.m. May 13 and — going forward — will operate daily from 8 a.m. to 3 a.m.

“This is a big deal,” said Racing and Gaming Commission Chairman Dennis Lee, who oversaw the unanimous approval on Friday.

It took about 14 months for Caesars Entertainment to build a 28,000-square-foot Harrah’s casino, which will have more than 500 slot machines and 14 table games, along with a sportsbook that seats 78 people and has nine kiosks.

The only technicality to approving the opening date in Columbus was making sure it coincided with the opening of its new race track.

Commissioner Jeff Galyen pointed out that a Nebraska city “can’t have a casino without having a horse track.”

The Racing and Gaming Commission revised its approval by adding the opening of Columbus’ horse track would also be on May 13. Columbus will host a 15-day race meet that begins Aug. 16 and runs through Sept. 15.

The casino is located along U.S. 81 on the northwest side of the city and will become the first fully completed casino in Nebraska. Harrah’s has been operating a temporary casino at Ag Park in Columbus since June.

Lynne McNally, CEO of the Nebraska Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, which oversees operation of the WarHorse casinos in Lincoln and Omaha, gave updates on Friday about the construction going on at those casinos.

WarHorse Casino Omaha could open as early as Aug. 1, McNally told the commission.

Meanwhile, Phase II of WarHorse Casino Lincoln is moving toward its October completion, she said. The building is 95% enclosed, while asphalt will soon be laid down on the parking area.

Eventually, a wall separating the current casino and the expansion currently being built will be torn down, creating a casino that will have 900 gaming positions, including 10 table games, while making improvements to the simulcasting and sportsbook areas.

The challenge will be removing the wall without interrupting simulcasting, which takes place in that area of the casino.

“It’s exactly where the wall is coming down,” McNally said Friday. “So they are working on trying to minimize the interruption of simulcasting while they get it moved to a different area.”

In other news, plans for the barn at Legacy Downs at WarHorse Casino Lincoln were unanimously approved after Gene McCloud, a director with the Nebraska Horsemen, gave a presentation.

Construction on the barn, which has already been approved by the Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Commission and city of Lincoln, is scheduled to begin next month.

The 81-foot-by-350-foot barn will feature 58 stalls, four feed rooms, eight tack rooms and two washrooms.

The 12-foot-by-12-foot stalls are being designed by Noble Panels of Milton-Freewater, Oregon.

McCloud said he told the company what he wanted, and workers there are in the process of building a stall to those specifications.

“I am going to fly out there and look at it to make sure what we have on paper is what I see,” he said.

Legacy Downs is scheduled to host its first full race meet Sept. 20-21 and Sept. 27-28, said Lori Thomas, chief operating officer of the Horsemen’s Association.

“We’re very happy with new barn plans,” she said. “The board worked hard to make sure horsemen’s needs were met.”