Legal Sports Betting in Nebraska Moves Closer to Launch

Dave Schwab Sports Betting Expert

2 minute read

The process to legalize sports betting is different in every state. However, the one thing they all have in common is unforeseen delays. That appears to be the case in Nebraska as it inches closer and closer to an actual launch.

In May of 2021, Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts signed LB 561. This piece of legislation paved the way for legal retail sports betting in the state. This bill gives land-based casinos the right to offer legal sports betting through a retail sportsbook.

This may sound funny to say but the legalization of sports betting is actually the easy part of the process. The next step involves formulating all the rules and regulations governing this industry. After that step is completed, the final phase in implementation is issuing licenses.

Since legal sports betting in Nebraska will be limited to just retail sportsbooks, things become less complicated. The casino venues are already licensed in the state. This tends to expedite the timeframe for going live.

The moving target for actual launch is still the end of 2021 or early in 2022. Similar states going through this process have designated early February a viable timeframe. This happens to coincide with the NFL’s annual Super Bowl. This is the biggest single-day sports betting event of the year.

The current process to legalize sports betting in Nebraska can be traced back to a voter referendum in the 2020 November election. The favorable response got the ball rolling.

Interestingly enough, state lawmakers first chose to classify sports betting as a game of skill. This tactic was previously employed to divert possible legal challenges as an expansion of gambling.

Once states were given the right to offer legal sports betting in May of 2018, the state deemed this form of gambling as a game of chance.

Nebraska’s Racing and Gaming Commission is the governing body behind the legal sports betting industry in the state. The process of setting and approving the governing rules and regulations is taking longer than expected.

As mentioned, these types of delays are common across the legal US market. The most optimistic proponents of legal betting still believe that sportsbooks in Nebraska casinos could go live in 2021. However, the process could drag into the first quarter of 2022.

While the state’s Racing and Gaming Commission has been apologetic for the continued delay, this is all part of the regulatory process.

Legal retail sportsbooks in Nebraska can be housed in land-based casinos and race tracks. One of the bigger locations is Grand Island Casino Resort at Fonner Park.Native Star is a popular tribal casino that is owned and operated by the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.

Written by Dave Schwab, our US Sports Betting Industry expert. You can learn more about our author's expertise here.

Dave Schwab

Dave Schwab has been covering the sports betting industry for the past 12 years as the main focus of his specialty marketing company for online content. This endeavor followed a previous career in the field of sales and marketing in the wholesaling sector.Most of his weekly pieces focus on the rapidly expanding legal US sports betting industry. However, he still does extensive work covering betting angles that can provide a competitive edge to avid players. Dave believes that it is always a challenge to take past results and current form to try and correctly determine a future result. Sports brings out the unpredictability in what should be a fairly predictable outcome based on the stats, facts and recent trends in a particular matchup. More from Dave Schwab