Nebraska advocates are preparing a signature collection campaign to place the issue of mobile sports betting before voters on the 2026 general election ballot.
This comes months after state lawmakers debated but ultimately passed over similar legislation in the 2025 session. “Therefore, our partners, some of the gaming platforms, have made the decision that we are going to get signatures to put the constitutional amendment on the ballot,” Lynn McNally, CEO of Nebraska Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, told KLIN News.
The Horsemen group owns the Legacy Downs racetrack at WarHorse Casino in Lincoln. WarHorse Gaming is a division of Ho-Chunk, Inc., the economic development corporation of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. WarHorse Gaming manages the expansion of casino gaming in partnership with Nebraska Horsemen in Omaha and Lincoln. WarHorse Gaming is leading this petition effort.
Petition circulators will begin collecting signatures “in the next three to four weeks,” said McNally. Voters will be approached with two separate petitions: a constitutional amendment and a supporting statute.
McNally is confident the effort will succeed in collecting sufficient signatures. In 2020, about 65% of Nebraskans voted to legalize sports betting and casino gambling, but only at horseracing tracks. That measure, initiative 429, passed along side two other related petitions. McNally said all three petitions collectively garnered 750,000 signatures.
This time around, the constitutional amendment will need ~120,000 and the supporting statute will need ~90,000 signatures to go before voters next fall. “So I’m confident that we’ll be able to get the signatures to put these measures on the ballot,” McNally said. “I think that Nebraska should be able to decide whether to allow mobile sports betting or not.”
She added that the bulk of state tax revenue collected through mobile sports betting “will go to the property tax relief fund, just as the tax revenue from the casinos goes also to the property tax relief fund.”
Popular—and lucrative—sports betting platforms are backing 2025’s petition campaign. It’s to be determined if that will include compensation for petition circulators.
“[We’re] disappointed that the legislature didn’t put it on the ballot, but that’s OK. We’ll get it on the ballot ourselves,” McNally said.