{"id":30362,"date":"2021-05-13T12:48:12","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T18:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=30362"},"modified":"2021-05-13T12:56:49","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T18:56:49","slug":"sports-wagering-narrowed-keno-parity-added-to-casino-regulation-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=30362","title":{"rendered":"Sports wagering narrowed, keno parity added to casino regulation bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bill on final reading that would implement provisions of a constitutional gaming amendment approved in 2020 was amended May 13 after senators voted to return it to select file.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Tom Briese<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last November, Nebraska voters legalized all forms of games of chance at licensed horse racetracks through an initiative petition drive.<\/p>\n

LB561, introduced by Sen. Tom Briese of Albion, would provide the regulatory framework necessary to implement that constitutional amendment. Among other provisions, the bill would allow a variety of sports wagering, including on college games involving Nebraska universities.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers voted to return the bill to select file to consider an amendment offered by Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha. The amendment, adopted 31-4, would prohibit betting on in-state college teams when they are playing in Nebraska. It also would require that keno played at racetrack casinos operate in accordance with regulations governing existing keno parlors.<\/p>\n

Lathrop said the amendment wasn\u2019t ideal but was necessary to garner at least 33 votes on final reading. The Nebraska Constitution requires a two-thirds majority vote for approval of a bill that substantively modifies a measure passed by initiative petition.<\/p>\n

Omaha Sen. John Cavanaugh supported the amendment, saying it was necessary to pass much-needed gaming regulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a bill that we\u2019ve all decided, and agree, that we need to get done this year,\u201d he said. \u201cThe voters passed expanded gambling by ballot initiative and it requires further regulation. [LB]561 is that further regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lincoln Sen. Adam Morfeld opposed the portion of the amendment relating to wagering on in-state college teams. He said the prohibition wouldn\u2019t stop anyone from betting on those games but simply would force Nebraskans to place bets in Iowa, where such wagering is legal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pretending like this isn\u2019t occurring,\u201d Morfeld said. \u201cIt\u2019s literally puritanical nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Tom Brandt of Plymouth said the amendment would reduce the amount of property tax relief that Nebraskans would receive from legalized wagering.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s what the voters intended,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After adoption of the amendment, LB561 was returned to final reading on a 39-3 vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill on final reading that would implement provisions of a constitutional gaming amendment approved in 2020 was amended May 13 after senators voted to return it to select file.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[185],"class_list":["post-30362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-affairs","tag-sen-tom-briese"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/LB561Briese5-13-21a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30362"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30364,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30362\/revisions\/30364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}