While Nebraska has long been considered an anti-gambling state, it was quite the opposite during the state’s infancy. Omaha, specifically, was the largest per-capita gambling town in the entirety of the United States – that is, until the state banned gambling in all forms in 1887. This ban came about largely due to the city of Omaha, as the Nebraska Legislature blamed gambling for the rampant abuse of alcohol and drugs - among other immoral activities - occurring within the town.
The Nebraska Legislature began to scale back legislation outlawing gambling in 1934, when they passed an amendment legalizing horse racing. This meant that, for the first time in over 45 years, Nebraskans could legally gamble on something. While this amendment is considered by many to be a precursor for future pro-gaming legislation, it still took almost 6 decades for more meaningful progress to be made. Eventually, however, another major domino fell in 1992 when Nebraska voters approved a state lottery allowing for residents to purchase tickets for games such as the Powerball, Mega Millions, and 2by2.
As the state began to see the revenue that gaming could bring in, both politicians and citizens alike began to advocate for commercial casinos and sports wagering. However, as was the case with the Nebraska State lottery, progress has been slow. In 2004, voters blocked the licensing of two new casinos in the state, which represented a major setback for those who hoped to see an easing of gambling restrictions in the new century.
However, in 2019, the governor of Nebraska passed a bill changing regulations related to the possession/playing of certain gaming machines in the state. Under this provision, gaming machines that require “skill” could now be reclassified as amusement devices, meaning that most “nudge” or “skill touch” games would now be treated as legal under Nebraska State Law. This provision protects the operators of these machines as long as they adhere to certain regulatory oversights along the lines of other already-legal amusement devices.
This bill essentially boils down to an expansion of the definition of what constitutes a game of skill in the eyes of the state of Nebraska, while placing more rigid boundaries over what kind of devices can be labeled as games of chance. Games requiring skill have been legal for the most part under Nebraska law, although games of chance remain illegal.
The bill continues a slow-moving trend in recent years of scaling back certain regulations surrounding skill gaming and gambling in Nebraska after over a century of some of the strictest gambling laws in the nation.
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