Nebraska Sports Betting Fails In Special SessionIssue Passes Committee, But Doesn’t Get To Vote |
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A special session of the Nebraska legislature ended this week without lawmakers approving a plan letting voters decide the issue.
The session lasted 17 days and was meant as a means to tackle property tax relief, but some key supporters of sports betting hoped to get the issue to a vote after the Legislature’s General Affairs Committee approved the issue to go to voters earlier this month. The plan received bipartisan support in committee but lacked enough support to reach a full vote this week.
“It’s up to the body,” Speaker John Arch told the Nebraska Examiner after the issue received the committee’s approval. “They could end the session, or they could choose to stick around and take up other bills.”
Lack Of Support
Legislators apparently went with the latter plan and ended the session. Nebraska is the only state with a unicameral legislature, and Sen. Eliot Bostar (D) proposed the legislation to allow for voters to voice their views on the issue at the ballot box. However, even that wouldn’t technically authorize wagering.
Instead, the ballot initiative would give the legislature “the option to introduce sports betting if the public voted yes, rather than a mandate,” according to SBC Americas.
Bostar would have allowed for up to 90% of revenue generated from the industry to go toward property tax relief. While the plan received some support, that apparently wasn’t enough to overcome significant opposition that included a key group of 13 legislators. Legendary University of Nebraska football coach = Tom Osborne Also expressed opposition to the plan.
All of the Cornhusker State’s neighbor’s except Missouri have legalized sports betting, including Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Iowa. A sports betting ballot initiative was recently approved in Missouri for November after receiving support from local professional sports teams.
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