During last week’s legislative session, Nebraska Senator Eliot Bostar (District 29) proposed LB-28, a bill to legalize online sports betting and allow the state to address the property taxes issue.
Legalizing sports betting in Nebraska would help fund state services, lower taxes, and improve the state’s fiscal health
Revenue from sports betting could be used to fund state services, lower taxes, and improve Nebraska’s fiscal health, per Bostar. Currently, the state has all the downsides of sports gambling and none of the upsides.
“Because it is currently accessible to anyone who really wants to participate, our state is already incurring the social costs associated with a gambling population,” said Bostar said.
“However, we are not generating any of the revenue that would normally come with that activity to the state.”
GeoComply, the global leader in geolocation, fraud prevention, and cybersecurity solutions, has blocked more than 2 million attempts to place online sports bets in Nebraska between January and the end of June 2024, a recently released market study shows.
The Vancouver-based software company also blocked 4.5 million attempts at online bets in Nebraska from July 2023 to June 2024. Online gaming is illegal and controlled by geofence technology in the Cornhusker State.
Nebraska’s population is a bit more than 1.9 million. Yet, more than 2 million bets were denied over the last six months on America’s biggest online betting sites.
About 64,000 Nebraskans opened online accounts at one of the top four betting sites in the last year
According to the Lincoln Journal Star, GeoComply confirmed that 64,000 Nebraskans opened online accounts at one of the top four betting sites — DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM and Caesars Entertainment — in the last year, a 41% increase.
Those new accounts could have been a determining factor in the number of denied bets. Though, the study showed more than 21,000 of those denied bets came from out-of-state betting in Iowa.
Legalizing online sports betting would solve that problem and the property taxes predicament.
“You can’t keep controlling morality. We’re very willing to do ‘sin taxes’ when we don’t agree that people should drink or smoke,” said Sen. Carol Blood (District 03).
“Here’s an opportunity for us to be forward thinking and to relieve the property tax burden, how great is that?”
Some form of sports betting has been legalized in 38 states and Washington D.C.
Nebraska is one of 12 states that has not legalized online sports betting. Neighboring Kansas has surpassed more than $4 billion dollars in wagers since sports betting began in 2022.
A week prior to the legislative session, the Nebraska Racing & Gaming Commission approved the move for the Hastings Racing Exposition to move their license to Ogallala with plans to build a race track and casino.
Although retail gambling does permit sports gambling, it is only allowed within the geographic fencing of the property.
“We know that many people are already playing fantasy sports, and they’re doing it with VPN’s,” Blood said. “Because if you want to do what you want to do, you’re going to do it. Why not tax it?”