And then there was one.
Three-and-a-half hours into a filibuster Wednesday, Nebraska Sen. Eliot Bostar requested that his sports betting constitutional amendment be laid over. Bostar is the sponsor of a package of bills that would have expanded sports betting from retail only to online. Only his LR 20CA, a constitutional amendment that would have sent the decision to the voters, made it to the senate floor. But hours after Sen. Brad von Gillern announced he was leading a filibuster, Bostar pulled the bill, presumably because he was finally certain he did not have the votes.
Entering this week, lawmakers in Hawaii and Nebraska were entertaining gambling expansions on chamber floors. But by Friday, it’s possible that proposals in both states will be dead. A Hawaii conference committee is crafting a compromise that the legislature must accept by Thursday night in order to keep the issue alive.
In Nebraska, von Gillern stood Wednesday morning and started the filibuster. At the time, he suggested that his fellow senators tuck in, go to their offices to get some work done, or find some other way to spend the four hours allowed for a filibuster on second reading.
Von Gillern and other senators had their say for 30 minutes before an hour-long recess. When the Senate returned to session, senators spoke in five-minute blocks. They compared online sports betting to drugs, called placing bets “placing debts,” and pointed to young men at risk as reasons to kill the constitutional amendment.
Sen. Robert Dover suggested during discussion that gambling operators may be guilty of manipulating major sporting events to their advantage. In addition, he took the argument about the “at-risk” population a step further when he said that legalizing online sports betting would lead to higher rates of attempted suicide. He did not offer clear proof for either assertion.
Not the first filibuster attempt for wagering
LR 20CA passed bumpily through the Senate since it was introduced Jan. 17.
The filibuster attempt marked the third time since the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was overturned in 2018 that lawmakers filibustered against a sports betting bill. In Missouri, senators filibustered in 2022 and 2023. Voters legalized sports betting in that state last November after professional sports teams got an initiative on the ballot. State-authorized sportsbooks are set to launch there in December.
A digital expansion could find its way to Nebraska voters by way of an industry-sponsored initiative later this year or next. Several senators pointed to that possibility and said that they’d rather see betting operators foot the bill than pass a referendum through the Senate. Should the industry decide to try for an initiative, it would need to submit a proposal and get approval from the secretary of state’s office. After that, proponents would have to gather signatures. Nebraska law requires signatures of 10% of registered voters for a constitutional amendment, including 5% collected from 38 out of the state’s 93 counties. The deadline for submitting signatures would be four months before the Nov. 3, 2026 midterm elections.
Voters last passed gambling expansion in ’20
Nebraskans voted for a gambling expansion in November 2020. At that time, it was not clear if sports betting was included in the package, and if it was, whether it would be retail or online. Lawmakers ultimately decided to limit betting to in-person.
The first brick-and-mortar sportsbook opened in June 2023. Since then, according to public records, operators have reported $7.9 million in revenue and paid the state $1.6 million in taxes. In 2024, $53.6 million was bet and operators had revenue of $4.6 million.
Gambling tax revenue is earmarked for property tax relief.
Senators Wednesday stood ready with three proposed amendments, all of which would have ultimately killed or delayed a decision on the bill. Von Gillern brought the first, MO194, which would push a decision on the constitutional amendment to June 9 — the day the session is set to end.
During discussion about MO194, one senator, Tanya Storer, pointed to the inclusion of gambling addiction to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). She said the DSM-5 compares gambling addiction to opioid and heroin addiction. Sen. Rick Holdcroft argued that $112 million dollars in sportsbook revenue would be “sent out of state, probably to the east or west coast” so the state could make $32 million in tax revenue and local casinos would earn $60 million. He said that no jobs would be created in Nebraska.
LR 20CA sponsor Bostar did answer questions during discussion about amendments. He shared information about mandated responsible gambling tools, and later said that while he’s not a huge proponent of legal betting, it is already happening in the state, so it makes sense for Nebraska to capture the tax revenue.
Digital betting a ‘deeply destructive addiction’
But the culture in Nebraska — or at least the Nebraska legislature — doesn’t fit with legal gambling, said multiple senators.
“Nebraska is a family first state,” Sen. Brian Hardin said. “We don’t just legislate for money, we legislate” for good sense. Hardin called digital sports betting a “quiet, hidden, and deeply destructive addiction that will take hold across our state. … Let’s protect our values, our families, our future.”
Sen. Terrell McKinney called out his colleagues, saying, “stop the hypocrisy” after detailing how he believes that Nebraska’s legislature has been “watering down” whatever voters say they want. McKinney was among the senators that suggested an industry-led ballot initiative is a possibility.
Even if Bostar’s constitutional amendment had passed, the legislature would have had more work do to. The enabling legislation, which laid out a framework, as well as a bill that would have lifted the current ban on betting on local college teams playing at home, stalled in committee.
