The Nebraska football program is going to be surrounded by sports gambling, even if the state’s governor keeps it illegal in the Cornhuskers’ home state.
On Monday morning, the world took a dramatic shift for both the Nebraska football and Nebraska basketball programs. The Supreme Court of the United States announced that sports gambling was officially legal.
That doesn’t mean that every state in the country is suddenly going to allow you to run out and bet on today’s baseball games. What it does mean is that every state in the country could allow you to run out and bet on today’s baseball games if they wanted.
Until yesterday, a 1992 federal law banned sports betting in the United States. Las Vegas was grandfathered into that law as the only place state-side you could do it.
If, like Obi Wan Kenobi, you felt a disturbance in the force, it was indeed millions of Vegas sports books employees crying out as one. The sporting landscape is changing and is likely to change fast, for both college and pro sports.
Anyone who knows the political landscape of Nebraska is likely going to caution those of you who have always wanted to *legally* bet on a Cornhusker game that you should hold off on opening that bottle of champagne though.
Shortly after the high court issued its groundbreaking ruling, Governor Pete Ricketts held a press conference where he reiterated that “sports gambling is still illegal here.” The Nebraska legislature has taken up expanded gambling, in one form or another, several years in a row.
Those attempts have largely been massive failures thanks to a concerted effort by anti-gambling forces led by none other than former Nebraska football head coach Tom Osborne. The good news, for those Husker fans who have been waiting and wishing to *legally* bet on Husker games is that there are about to be some other options even if Nebraska government collectively digs in its heels.