Nebraska lawmakers put daily fantasy sports on hold

Nebraska state senator Tyson Larson has requested that his bill LB970 be shelved until the next legislative session, effectively killing the measure for the rest of this year.

Larson wrote to Galen Hadley, Speaker of the Legislature Friday asking for the withdrawal, and the Speaker obliged, saying that it was Larson’s prerogative to take the bill off the table.

LB970 was a measure seeking to clarify the legal status of fantasy sports in Nebraska, along with raffles on weather events, pickle cards and keno. Nebraska state law requires that a game must be predominantly one of skill rather than chance.

Senator Ernie Chambers, who opposed the bill and threatened to filibuster it, claimed that test votes had proved that the proposal didn’t have the required 33 votes for cloture, which allows a vote on whether to advance a bill. Chambers has said that he regards the Larson bill as an expansion of state gambling.

About 300,000 people play fantasy sports in Nebraska, according to daily fantasy sports company DraftKings. Following amendments, the Larson bill would have defined fantasy sports contests as games of skill, required fantasy sports operators to verify that participants are at least 18, and prohibited third-party auto drafters (see previous reports).

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