A Vote on a Market That Already Has Customers
Secretary of State Bob Evnen’s office confirmed on Friday that the Online Sports Wagering Authorization Constitutional Amendment and the Online Sports Wagering Regulation Initiative had both qualified for the Nov. 3 ballot. Because they run separately, the state could authorize online wagering while rejecting the framework meant to govern it, or the reverse.
Tax Relief Nebraska submitted more than 201,000 signatures for the amendment and roughly 146,000 for the initiative on Friday, June 26, ahead of a July 2 deadline. The Nebraska Examiner reported at the time that the amendment needed roughly 126,000 valid signatures and the initiative about 88,000.
The campaign is funded by the operators who would run the market. Filings with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission show Fanduel and Draftkings each contributed around $3.5 million. Lynne McNally, director of government relations for WarHorse casino, the in-state backer, told the Nebraska Examiner that WarHorse had contracted with Fanduel, Draftkings and MGM to operate under a framework voters have not yet approved.
Those operators are already competing against a channel that needs no ballot measure. Kalshi and Polymarket offer sports contracts nationwide as exchanges registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Nebraska is not among the states that have sued them or issued cease-and-desist orders. Their products are available in the state now, while the wagering measures are still in campaign mode.
The statutory measure would direct 70% of gambling tax revenue to property tax credits, the same share casinos pay, and a report commissioned by Tax Relief Nebraska put the yield at just under $87 million over five years. Nate Grasz, executive director of the Nebraska Family Alliance, argued the projection implies Nebraskans would wager roughly $435 million online over that period. McNally pointed to the existing regime: state records show Nebraska’s five casinos generated more than $52.3 million in gaming tax in 2025, roughly $36.6 million of it going to property tax credits. “If that’s not property tax relief, I don’t know what is,” she said.
The Lincoln Journal Star first reported that county election officials had referred suspected fraud on the gaming petitions to authorities, and the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office expanded its petition-fraud investigation to all four statewide citizen-led initiatives, with Chief Deputy Ben Houchin saying on Aug. 19 that “thousands and thousands” of signatures were under review.
The six circulators arrested so far were hired for three unrelated Lincoln city charter petitions, and Tax Relief Nebraska used a different firm. Flagged signatures are excluded from valid counts, so the certified totals already net them out. McNally said the gaming campaign’s firm validated signatures as it collected them: “It’s not in anyone’s interest to submit signatures that you suspect are fraudulent.”
The measures would limit gaming operators to two online platforms at a time and require wagering servers to sit in Nebraska, with the Nebraska Racing and Gaming Commission adopting rules by June 1, 2027. Evnen’s office must certify the full ballot by Sept. 11 and will hold hearings in each of the state’s three congressional districts. The Examiner noted the measures reach voters absent legal action following certification.
Other states have answered the overlap in opposite ways. North Carolina’s budget taxes prediction-market operators at 6% of net trading fee revenue from Jan. 1, 2027 while declining to license them, having raised its sportsbook tax to 23% of gross wagering revenue. Pennsylvania’s House Bill 2711 would bar gambling companies from acting as market makers on prediction platforms. Massachusetts has treated licensed entry as the answer: reopening its application process in April, Gaming Commission chair Jordan Maynard said he was “heartened that people want to come in when prediction markets, which we definitely don’t allow, want to enter for sports betting.
