Nebraska voters could decide sports betting’s fate

• Tax Relief Nebraska submitted signatures for two petitions in late June, but a fraud investigation and county-by-county review could still affect their ballot status.
• The campaign needed roughly 88,000 signatures for a statutory measure and about 126,000 for a constitutional amendment.
• Opponents warn of addiction risks tied to mobile wagering; proponents point to tax revenue already flowing to neighboring states.

Tax Relief Nebraska says it submitted enough signatures in late June to place two petitions on Nebraska’s November 3 ballot, though the measures aren’t yet certified as an active fraud investigation and a county-by-county signature review continue.

A citizen shortcut

The campaign submitted close to 350,000 signatures across two connected petitions on June 26, ahead of the state’s deadline.

One petition seeks a constitutional amendment legalizing online sports betting and needed roughly 126,000 valid signatures. A companion statutory measure, setting rules for a mobile market tied to licensed racetrack casinos, needed about 88,000.

Both required signatures from at least 5% of registered voters in 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties.

Nebraska lawmakers tried twice to send the question to voters through the Legislature first. A 2024 special-session push by state Sen. Eliot Bostar died without a floor vote when the session adjourned.

A renewed attempt in 2025, Legislative Resolution 20CA, passed its first floor vote 27-16, but Bostar asked that it be passed over that April once a filibuster threat made the two-thirds threshold unreachable. It never returned to the floor.

Signatures under review

The petition drive is now the only path left to the ballot, and it faces its own hurdle.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office confirmed this week that its fraud investigation into petition circulators has expanded to include the sports betting measures, among four statewide petitions affected.

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen must confirm by September 11 whether they have enough valid signatures to qualify.

Lynne McNally, director of government relations at WarHorse Casinos, said:

“I am confident that we got a sufficient number of signatures to make the ballot.”

Addiction warnings mount

Not everyone welcomes the prospect of digital wagering.

Mike Sciandra of the Nebraska Council on Problem Gambling remains formally neutral on the measure but wants strong safeguards attached to any new law. He said mobile sports betting has proven three to four times more likely to contribute to problem gambling than in-person wagering in states that already allow it.

National research lends weight to that concern. The National Council on Problem Gambling estimates roughly 1% of American adults have a severe gambling problem, with rates roughly double among sports bettors specifically.

One study cited in a Nebraska Legislature research report found 16% of online sports bettors met the clinical criteria for a gambling disorder, with another 13% showing early warning signs.

Deep pockets, wider stakes

The campaign carries heavy financial backing from national sportsbooks.

DraftKings and FanDuel have each contributed more than $2.6 million to Tax Relief Nebraska across two rounds of donations, with BetMGM’s Roar Digital and Fanatics Betting & Gaming’s FBG Enterprises adding $250,000 and $75,000. The committee had raised over $5.6 million total by its April filing.

WarHorse Casinos, Nebraska’s largest casino operator, has publicly backed the effort as both DraftKings and FanDuel keep expanding into new markets nationally.

The statutory measure would require any online platform to run its servers within Nebraska and cap each operator at two platforms, while keeping the current ban on wagers involving in-state college teams, a restriction the 2024 legislative package had sought to lift.

Supporters point to demand already leaving the state. GeoComply testimony to the Legislature found Nebraska devices crossed the state’s border roughly 40,000 times between July 2023 and June 2024 to place legal mobile bets, an 84% jump from the year before. Most crossings, 82%, went into Iowa, tracked using the same geofencing technology sportsbooks already rely on to enforce state lines.

Nebraska voters approved racetrack casino gaming in 2020, and Gov. Pete Ricketts signed LB 561 in 2021 to authorize retail sports wagering, with WarHorse Lincoln taking the state’s first legal bet in June 2023.

Online wagering would need its own yes vote, the same path Missouri took before its market launched in December 2025.