Nebraska Considers Online Sports Betting Amid Tax Crisis
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SportsTranscript
00:00All right, so, uh, hey, look, this, this is something that's brand new for us here on
00:07the show.
00:08I know you guys wrote about it over at legal sports report, uh, Nebraska boy, we don't
00:11cover them a ton here on the show.
00:14And all of a sudden there's a legislature going on.
00:16I mean, Jim, I guess is, is it possible that in quarter four ahead of football season or
00:22during football season that that state legalizes sports betting?
00:26Because as I look at this landscape right now, I don't see a single state showing any
00:30positivity to get something done before the end of the year.
00:33Are they it?
00:34Yeah, perhaps Craig.
00:36And they do have retail sports betting in Nebraska.
00:40There are three or four brick and mortar casinos that do take bets.
00:45So the market is, is relatively small in the grand scheme of things.
00:49But what they're discussing now is the potential of bringing sports betting online in Nebraska.
00:57And the reason for that is because the governor there has stated in recent weeks and months
01:03that the state is in a property tax crisis and they need to raise revenue to reduce that
01:10property tax burden on its residents.
01:13So a special legislative session kicked off yesterday.
01:17They introduced a online sports betting bill, which would essentially just be a small amendment
01:24to the current sports betting bill that, like I mentioned, has legalized retail sports betting.
01:31So this would bring that, that market online in Nebraska potentially.
01:38And it would create, if passed, a constitutional amendment.
01:43So then it would go before the voters coming up in November.
01:47So they introduced that bill yesterday.
01:50From what I'm gathering, it sounds like some committee hearings will begin after the weekend.
01:56And then we'll get a better sense if this is going to be discussed at any length or
02:03if we'll perhaps have to wait until the beginning of the new year, in which the governor recently
02:09signaled last week that he would be putting forth a priority bill to legalize online sports
02:16betting in Nebraska.
02:17Now, of course, industry groups want this to be kind of ironed out and put in front
02:23of voters in November so they don't have to wait any longer to raise additional revenues
02:28to help with that property tax crunch that the state is currently in.
02:33If that does not happen over the next couple of days, then we'll likely see legislation
02:40to legalize online sports betting in Nebraska come at the beginning of next year.