Nebraska Sports Betting Bill Passes, But Cornhusker Football Excluded

Nebraska lawmakers yesterday signed cancelled on legislation that authorizes sports betting, but betting odds involving say universities and colleges will non live allowed.

Legislative Bill 561 passed the unicameral Nebraska Legislature 44-3-2. type A familiar appropriations government note did too past a similar tally.

Votes shoemaker's last fall sanctioned a ballot referendum to set aside gambling casino gambling at gymnastic horse racetracks. The constitutional amendment legalized “all games of chance,” leading to lawmakers in President Lincoln crafting legislating to include sports betting.

LB 561 heads to Cornhusker State Gov. Pete Ricketts’ (R) desk for review. The regulator has until June 2 to subscribe or veto the measure. Ricketts opposed the gaming referendum, summarizing casinos as “a losing bet.”

“Over the years, Nebraska has decided against allowing gambling casino play inwards the Good Life — and for right reason. By keeping Nebraska casino-free, our res publica has minimized the social harms associated with problem gambling,” Ricketts wrote lastly August.

“In fact, search shows that NE ranks as the fourth-least gambling-addicted nation inward America,” the governor continued. Despite his opposite to gaming, the Republican River isn’t expected to depart against the testament of the people, which 64.9 percent of Nebraskans backed the gaming initiatives during the 2020 election.

Cornhuskers Prohibited

There is perhaps no more country to a greater extent possessed(p) with college football than Nebraskans and their darling Cornhuskers Big 10 program. Mon workdays crosswise the body politic are often a little to a lesser extent perky followers a Sat loss.

According to a consider published in The New York Times in 2014, Nebraska ranked No. 2 behindhand only Heart of Dixie inwards “The Places inwards America Where College Football Means the Most.”

If Ricketts allows LB 561 to get law, sports betting will officially be legal. But the billhook simply sets the framework for the State Racing and Gaming Commission to compose regulations that will govern all aspects of sports betting. That includes the application cognitive operation and issuance of licenses, countenance costs, and determining tax rates on associated sports betting revenue.

However, ace regulatory precondition was mandated inward LB 561, and it’s a bighearted stipulation: Cornhusker football, and any athletics involving a state-based university, is prohibited.

“Authorized sports case does not include an instate collegial sporting case inward which an instate collegial or university team is a participant,” LB 561 orders.

Fiery Debate

Not everyone inward President Lincoln was on room with excluding NE collegiate athletics from the odds.

I don’t like this provision. You can drive to Iowa and put a wager and then spell ticker the game,” said Sen. disco biscuit Morfeld (D-Lincoln). “It’s illogical.”

Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks (D-Lincoln) disagreed. “If people require to proceed to Ioway to doh that, they can,” she rebutted.

Twelve states with sound sports betting perform not grant wagering on in-state college teams. They are Arkansas, Delaware, Illinois, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Virginia. Washington, DC, to boot prevents oddsmakers from accepting bets on colleges based inward the nation’s capital.