Grand Island Casino Resort officially adds sports betting

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) - The Grand Island Casino Resort is now one step closer to becoming a cully-functioning facility. Last week they added table games and on Wednesday they introduced another gambling option that may catch the eyes of sports fanatics.

Before Wednesday, a resident from the Tri-Cities would have to travel to Lincoln to place a sports bet, but as of today, Grand Island is the closest place for wagering on sporting events in the Tri-Cities. The casino is only the second place in the state of Nebraska to have live sports betting.

The current projection for the casino to become permanent is set for December 2024. There are two kiosks and betting stations for bettors and even after hours, kiosks will still be available.

Adding sports betting has been in the plans for quite a few months and after receiving approval from the Nebraska State Racing Commission, the plans went into fruition.

General Manager Vince Fiala says the timing was perfect.

“You know it is just another step towards a full casino and resort experience that we are going to have in hopefully of December 2024,” Fiala said. “I mean it is another amenity, this is good for the sports fans, I know there is a lot of them out there. Especially college football and NFL are huge betting platforms.”

Although bets can be placed, their are some restrictions on betting for the Huskers.

“The only other downside is that Nebraska teams when they are playing in Nebraska, you can’t bet on them,” Fiala said. “You can only bet on them when they aren’t in Nebraska.”

In the first hour there were a few bets placed. One of the bettors is Bryan Kinney who placed a bet that had ‘Go Big Red’ written all over it.

“I hope Nebraska can beat Minnesota,” Kinney said. “I would like to see Nebraska have a good year. They need one, It’s been a long time without having one.”