For years, opponents of casino gambling in Nebraska who hoped to prevent its legalization in the state pointed to the destruction the pastime would inevitably cause across communities in the footprint of casinos.

Some of the state’s most famous residents — including then-Gov. Pete Ricketts, Omaha billionaire Warren Buffet and former Husker football coach and Congressman Tom Osborne — joined faith leaders and anti-gambling advocates in a vocal caucus that tried and failed to stop Nebraskans from legalizing casino gambling.

Among their arguments was the repeated suggestion that casino gambling would, among other things, bring an increase in crime…

But a year after Nebraska’s first state-licensed casino opened in Lincoln, such fears — particularly over the purported increase in crime that opponents warned would accompany casino gambling’s arrival here — have not come to pass.