Nebraska Legislator and Casino Executive Pursue Online Sports Betting

Repeated efforts by a coterie of Nebraska legislators to allow mobile sports betting have been stymied by the state’s unicameral legislature. Therefore, a different route is expected to be attempted by one of the gaming tribes to get enough signatures to put the question on the ballot and let Nebraskans decide.

Legislative Lethargy

Nebraska legislators pushing to legalize online sports betting in the state have been repeatedly rebuffed by fellow legislators who recently took to filibustering the measure when it was up for a vote earlier this year.

Several previous attempts have failed to win support in the legislature. Nebraska has only one arm of the legislature, and bills require three separate two-thirds votes before they are approved.

Senator Eliot Bostar sponsored LR 20CA, which would legalize mobile sports betting in the Cornhusker State, and it made it through the General Affairs Committee via a 6-2 vote. It also passed the first round of the Senate floor.

However, it was then derailed when a filibuster forced Bostar to pull the legislation.

Nebraska Loses Millions as Bettors Cross State Lines

Bostar’s amendment will carry over into the 2026 legislative session.

He contends Nebraska is missing a $32 million opportunity, which is what estimates are that the state would reap in tax revenue from online sports betting.

Nebraska is surrounded by states that offer mobile sports betting, including Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, and Iowa, with Missouri launching its online sports betting industry on December 1st of this year.

Nebraskans are leaving in droves to make a wager in a bordering state, filling the coffers of its neighbors without Nebraska gaining any financial benefit.

Let the Voters Decide

A similar issue cropped up in neighboring Missouri, where political gridlock paralyzed any hope of mobile sports betting coming to the Show Me State. The professional sports franchises then pivoted and created a political action committee (PAC), which they named Winning for Missouri Education.

It was expected to gather approximately 170,000 verified signatures to get mobile sports betting on the ballot.

The consortium was led by St. Louis Cardinals CEO William “Bill” DeWitt Jr., as the six pro franchises could partner with the online sports betting platforms to provide them access to the market and create a new revenue stream.

The marketing campaign was successful, narrowly winning a majority at the ballot boxes, and the mobile sports betting industry will launch in December.

This appears to be the tactic taken by Lynne McNally, CEO of WarHorse Casinos in Lincoln and Omaha, both of which are owned and operated by the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. McNally has stated that the drive to get signatures is approximately a month away, and the group will need 10% of the voters’ 1.26 million signatures to get on the ballot.

“The bottom line is, you’re allowing tax money to go to Iowa, Kansas, and Colorado, just like with the casinos. People are using VPNs, and they’re disguising their location, pretending they’re in Iowa,” McNally said.