Nebraska’s online sports betting hopes dashed until January 2025
Cornhusker State could miss out on as much as $100m in annual tax revenue before online sports betting is eventually legalized after special legislative session adjourned
Further debate on legalizing online sports betting in Nebraska has been shelved until January after Governor Jim Pillen’s special legislative session adjourned sine die on Tuesday.
The special session was called to address ways to reduce property taxes and lasted 17 days. However, lawmakers did not sign off on any constitutional amendment and accompanying framework bill that would see digital sports betting given the green light.
In turn, the next opportunity to address the issue will not come until the turn of the calendar year, with Pillen recently explaining: “Online sports betting is real, and it is happening in the state.
“Whoever wants to do it is doing it, and we’re giving all the revenue to our neighbors. I will put forth, and it will be a priority bill, in January to approve online sports betting.”
His pledge to make it a priority bill means online sports betting will be placed ahead of other topics also up for discussion among lawmakers.
Nebraska’s special legislative session was almost certainly the last chance for further online sports betting or online casino launches in the US this year.
As a result, 2024 will likely end as the first year since PASPA was repealed in 2018 where not a single US state has opted to legalize some form of sports betting.
According to the Legal Sports Report, Senator Eliot Bostar believes that without legalized sports betting, the Cornhusker State is missing out on an additional $32m in annual tax revenue, 90% of which would have gone towards the state’s property tax relief fund.
January’s priority bill means that the earliest votes on legalizing online sports betting apps in Nebraska could be placed is November 2026. Bostar claims that such a delay would cost the state $100m in tax revenue.
Currently, Nebraska boasts four retail sportsbooks, all of which contributed just shy of $2m in tax payments to the state over the course of the latest fiscal year, with 70% of all gambling revenue going towards the property tax relief fund.