On Monday (12 August) Nebraska's General Affairs Committee advanced a constitutional amendment that would put the decision of whether or not to expand gaming to include digital sports betting to the voters.
The committee voted, 5-2, to send LR3CA to the floor, but failed to advance framework legislation. If the Nebraska wagering bill passes and voters approve the ballot referendum, the legislature will be tasked with deciding what digital wagering will look like.
In addition the framework legislation, LB13, includes language that would have put the constitutional amendment on the ballot this year. Unless an exception is made, the decision won’t go to the voters until 2026.
Senator John Cavanaugh introduced a change to LR3CA before it passed. According to the Lincoln Journal-Star, Cavanaugh said the change “keeps power in the hands of the legislature, allows voters to speak on it and then lets the legislature decide once it’s legal how proscriptive you want to make it”.
He also said the change would allow the legislature to determine how to spend sports betting proceeds. The framework bill that was moving forward with the constitutional amendment earmarked most tax dollars for property tax relief.
Is a vote even necessary for Nebraska wagering?
While the legislature seems to believe that it must vote on this issue and send it to voters, existing gaming law could be read to mean that online sports betting is already legal.
In 2020, Nebraska voters approved an expansion of gaming when they passed an initiative that made “games of chance” legal. At the time, there was some question as to whether or not a game of chance includes sports betting. But the legislature later determined it does.
In 2021, when legislators crafted a framework bill, and the regulator promulgated rules, neither included language about digital wagering. Current law defines a gaming device as any “electronic, mechanical or other device which plays a game of chance when activated by a player”. Mobile devices appear to fit that definition.
So far, however, stakeholders have not challenged the language and the current legislature is moving forward with the referendum.
Special session has no clear end date
Senator Eliot Bostar introduced the package of bills in late July, when the legislature went into special session. There is no clear end date. At a hearing in late July, there was clearly no consensus on whether or not to move the bills forward.
The push to legalise digital wagering comes down to dollars and cents. Bostar’s framework Nebraska wagering bill earmarks 90% of state revenue for property tax relief, which is a key issue. Nebraska funds its public education system through property taxes. The state has one of the highest rates in the US.
Should the constitutional amendment pass, the following language would be on the 2024 presidential ballot in November:
A constitutional amendment to permit an authorised gaming operator conducting sports wagering within a licensed racetrack enclosure to allow sports wager to be placed by an individual located within the State of Nebraska at the time the individual places the sports wager by means of a mobile or electronic platform.
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