Nebraska Sports Betting Petition Passes After Investigation

At long last, residents in the Cornhusker State will be able to vote on legalizing online sports betting.

The Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office announced that a petition from Tax Relief Nebraska has qualified to be on the midterm ballot this November. The news comes after the state found thousands of fraudulent signatures on several submitted petitions, prompting an investigation into each one.

The Office didn’t confirm how many signatures were fraudulent or unverified, only that it verified enough to meet the minimum qualifications set by state law.

Six People Charged With Fraud 

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office has arrested six people tied to fraudulent signatures from the state’s multiple petitions. All six were from outside of Nebraska and were involved in three of the pending petitions. 

They face felony election fraud charges as the state tries to send a strong message. Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen announced the initial five arrests in a press release and called for reforms of the state’s petition system.

The time has come to address the persistent problems with Nebraska's election petition signature collection process. I will be working on legislation to bring order to this chaos. I agree with the Governor that the per-signature payment of petition circulators should be prohibited. "I thank the Lancaster County Election Commission for their hard work on the signature verification process for these petitions.

Sports Betting Effort Clears Final Hurdle

With the investigation completed and petition approved, the effort to get online sports betting on the ballot has officially succeeded. 

Local casinos and commercial operators have lobbied Nebraska lawmakers for years to legalize online sports betting. Last year, WarHorse Casino warned it would take matters into its own hands if the legislative deadlock didn’t break. This led them to launch the petition effort once it became clear online sports betting wouldn’t get enough support from lawmakers.

The casino and its allies formed the Tax Relief Nebraska group, which led the signature-gathering effort. It faced pushback from opponents as it was conducted, showing they weren’t ready to give up on the issue. 

As a result, some worried the petition investigation could be a new tool to prevent online sports betting from reaching the ballot this fall. Those theories were proven false with the announcement from the Secretary of State’s Office.

Now that the petition is approved, it appears to have cleared its final hurdle.

Could Danger Still Be Lurking?

One of the other petitions being investigated in Nebraska would severely restrict the legislature's ability to alter laws enacted via public petitions. The goal is to prevent groups of lawmakers from defying the public’s will to serve their own interests. However, issues with the state’s petition system have led to plenty of opposition.

While this petition doesn’t directly affect the effort to legalize online sports betting, its failure could represent a problem lurking ahead.

Given that lawmakers refused to approve the expansion of sports betting, they could choose to alter and restrict the framework proposed in the petition greatly. As a result, residents could be forced to wait years before they can actually access online sportsbooks.