Nebraska lawmakers seek to block November ballot vote on nuclear operator

Nebraska ballot fight draws operator millions as lawmakers seek to block November vote

State Auditor Mike Foley and Treasurer Joey Spellerberg launched Save Nebraska Sports this month with a straightforward argument: FanDuel and DraftKings would take the bulk of any revenue generated, leaving the state with, in Foley's word, "pennies." The operators spent more than $7 million securing signatures to get two ballot measures onto the November 3 referendum. That asymmetry — legislators trying to block a vote that industry money already placed on the calendar — is where the real legal exposure sits.

The ballot measures, if approved, would authorize up to 12 statewide mobile sportsbook licenses, two attached to each of Nebraska's six gaming venues. The Nebraska Racing and Gaming Commission would then have until June 1, 2027, to finalize the regulatory framework. DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics, and BetMGM all participated in the signature effort. That participation matters legally: these companies are not passive beneficiaries of a civic process. They are parties who funded the ballot qualification. If Save Nebraska Sports pursues litigation to block or invalidate the measures, the operators' direct involvement in the petition drive becomes a contested fact about standing, not just a political talking point.

The opposing group, Tax Relief Nebraska, frames the ballot measures as a property tax relief mechanism. Whether that framing survives contact with the commission's actual rulemaking process is a different question. Ballot initiative language in gaming contexts routinely promises revenue streams that the implementing regulations cannot deliver at the projected scale. I have seen that gap exploited in enforcement proceedings — the statutory promise becomes the ceiling, the regulatory structure becomes the floor, and the operator sits between them at maximum negotiating advantage.

Foley's "pennies" argument is not wrong as a structural matter. Standard revenue-share agreements in mobile sports betting markets allocate most gross gaming revenue to operators before the state tax calculation begins. Nebraska's proposed framework, with 12 licenses across six venues, creates enough competitive pressure among operators to suppress effective tax yield further. The question the Racing and Gaming Commission will face by June 2027 is not whether to regulate, but how to set hold rates and tax structures that don't simply ratify whatever DraftKings and FanDuel propose as industry standard.

What makes the November vote genuinely uncertain is not the legal challenge — Save Nebraska Sports has not yet demonstrated a viable procedural path to removal — but the gap between the property tax relief promise and what the commission can actually deliver in a compressed rulemaking window. Voters approving the measures in November will be voting on a framework that does not yet exist. The commission has six months to build it, under pressure from operators who have already spent $7 million on this market before a single license is issued.