As gambling grows in Nebraska, groups say youths are already dabbling in sports betting

The Omaha native had joined the Navy and was stationed in Norfolk — the one on the East Coast. He’d played table games and fantasy football, and the ads for betting apps made gambling easy and seem mostly harmless. “You start betting with their money,” he said. But he advanced to loading his own funds into the apps.

It took a deployment to realize he may have a problem.

“I’m oceans away and calling my roommate to place bets,” Wolff, who now lives in Colon, said. It started with football, but quickly he was wagering on a bunch of sports he never even watched. Over a few months, he racked up more than $3,000 in losses.

Nebraska remains one of 18 states that have not legalized online sports betting since the Supreme Court allowed states to do so in 2018. Legislative Resolution 20CA may change that. The proposal from State Sen. Eliot Bostar of Lincoln passed through committee and is scheduled for floor debate Monday. If the Legislature approves the proposal, it would allow voters to decide if the state should join the majority of the country in legalizing online betting.

Regardless of whether Nebraska permits online betting, stories like Wolff’s and growth in the industry have forced the hand of some education officials in the state to start teaching students about gambling. These professionals told The World-Herald they don’t take a moral stance on betting — many lawmakers who have discussed gambling this session prefaced their statements with, “I don’t gamble” — and they don’t advocate the Legislature to go in any particular direction. They instead stressed the importance of early awareness to protect the state’s youths.

Gambling is here

David Geier heads the Nebraska Commission on Problem Gambling and said the organization started in the 1990s with the onset of the state lottery. People sought help for gambling issues ranging from skill games common in bars and convenience stores, to the lottery, to betting with bookies. Requests for service picked up when the state allowed for casinos, and slots became the most frequent source of problem gambling, Geier said.

Through the commission, Nebraskans have free access to counseling for problem gambling. Geier has urged lawmakers to ensure that whatever action they take to expand betting comes with funds to support problem gamblers. The proposal set for debate on the legislative floor earmarks 3% of revenue for the commission.

“We’re constantly trying to get more of the revenue to meet the demand that we’re seeing, and we expect the demand to increase,” he said. The demand for help from the commission has about doubled since casinos opened in Nebraska, Geier said. There are about 50 counselors in the state with a gambling certification, but Geier said Nebraska and most other states don’t have enough behavioral and mental health professionals.

While Nebraska’s gambling laws are more restrictive than most, thousands in the state find a way to bet. Casinos like Lincoln’s Warhorse are open 24 hours a day. Daily fantasy apps like PrizePicks are usable in Nebraska and mirror a proposition betting market, letting a user compete one-on-one with the company. Lawmakers highlighted the folks who drive daily from Omaha into Iowa to place bets as an example of revenue Nebraska is losing — a major concern when facing a $289 million budget deficit. Online sports betting generated $13.7 billion of revenue in 2024, according to the American Gaming Association.

Matt Pierson of the Nebraska Council on Economic Education pointed out to a class at Lincoln Standing Bear High School that March Madness pools, fantasy football leagues with buy-ins and the score-predicting squares game that many youth sports teams use for fundraising are all forms of gambling.

He said a few years ago, he never imagined a need to teach high schoolers about gambling and the possible pitfalls. But the inundation of sports with betting made it clear to him that students need to learn about it before they possibly develop an issue.

“I’m not here to tell you gambling is always bad,” Pierson said, demonstrating a segment of a three-part lesson NCEE developed and has made available for any teacher to use. “If you bet within your means for fun, that’s probably not an issue.”

Most students in the class indicated a familiarity with sports betting from advertising and seeing older relatives place bets. They also said they participate in fantasy sports or fill out a bracket during March Madness but don’t necessarily wager money.

Standing Bear freshman Payton Zupancic said he’s noticed advertising for gambling. Even though he’s not supposed to be the target, he senses the ads have an effect. “Eventually when I’m older, if I’ve seen it enough times, they’ll try and get me to get hooked into it, and then eventually lose money,” he said.

Youths ahead of the curve

Brian Petrotta researches sports gambling and sports media and teaches about the topics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

His curriculum was set for last year’s fall semester, but his students made him realize some of his material may need an update. They introduced him to a form of betting he’d never heard of — one that they could download on their phones with no problems from state restrictions.

They showed him Fliff, an app with a social betting component that scratches an itch similar to gambling. It doesn’t require real cash that converts to real dollars, but it has the option for users to do so. Nebraskans can download and use Fliff, unlike similar services because the app is considered a sweepstakes. Petrotta downloaded the app and inspected it himself.

“This is a fully functional sportsbook,” Petrotta said. “It’s something the students were overwhelmingly playing that astonished me.”

If a sports media and gambling researcher can’t keep up with the industry, how can the Nebraska Legislature, with a procedure of bill proposals, hearings, floor debates and voting, hope to regulate it?

“It is very difficult to stay on top of it,” Petrotta said.

He said there are gaps in most laws and highlighted Fliff and Kalshi, a wagering market that drew attention in the fall when the Supreme Court ruled it could operate a prediction market for the presidential election. Legislation often doesn’t cover fantasy sports — LB 342 in Nebraska has proposed regulations for already available daily fantasy services — or offshore books. And in these betting-adjacent apps, users can bet on University of Nebraska home games, something that the Legislature banned in local casinos.

“I’m fairly agnostic on whether it’s passed or not,” Petrotta said. “If these bills are passed, what I hope is that there is at least some money set aside for responsible gambling programs.”

Jon Gayer learned about Fliff in a similar way to Petrotta. Gayer, UNL campus recreation’s assistant director of alcohol and drug education, was handing out sober snacks at a tailgate before a Husker football game. Along with the usual merriment of a sunny fall Saturday in Lincoln, Gayer noticed students playing what looked like a game on their phones. Some of them then introduced him to Fliff. He assumed it wasn’t legal, but they showed him that it was readily available.

“Well how many people are doing this?” he asked some students. “There’s quite a few of us that do this,” they said. He paused to think. “If we’re gonna teach you about how to drink safely, what do we have to educate you on the bad side of gambling and things like that?”

Campus resources

Gayer received a $30,000 grant from the National Council on Problem Gambling, ESPN and FanDuel to address this gap in campus education. The grant facilitated a campus awareness effort, workshops and development of a comprehensive website, complete with a self-assessment for problem gambling and connections to support services.

The resources appeal to student sentiments: “Imagine the sinking feeling of a close game slipping away, knowing you just dropped next semester’s book money. That stress can snowball into major debt, wrecked credit scores, and forget about that new apartment — rent might be tight.”

The effort to educate about gambling hasn’t led to students knocking on his door to ask for help, but he thinks exposure while they are young will have longer-term effects.

“They can have that pause and they have that education and that background. And maybe they’ll remember something they learned here,” Gayer said.

Petrotta made a direct appeal after seeing a national news story about students using funds from their student loans to gamble.

“I literally got down to my hands and knees and said, ‘Please don’t do that.’ And for the most part, they laughed,” he said. But he thinks the message got through.

Jacob Engel, a UNL senior, learned of Fliff his sophomore year and started using the app mainly as a way for him and his buddies to engage with Husker football games. He sets some personal limits to prevent big losses, and his shoestring budget as a college student is a limiting factor as well. But he’s seen peers who don’t always have the self-control to stop.

“There are people who are probably going to take it further than they should,” he said. Some exposure to betting — “the good and the bad, both sides” — around the start of freshman year is a good idea, he said.

The NCAA estimates two-thirds of college-age adults have participated in some form of sports gambling.

Engel doesn’t feel strongly about whether online sportsbooks come to Nebraska since he already uses Fliff. However, he said, people have found and always will find a way to gamble regardless of what the law allows, so it may be best for Nebraskans to do so through a large, regulated company rather than seeking out a sketchy website or bookie.

A different addiction

Representatives of sportsbooks told Nebraska senators about measures in place to promote safe betting. The disclaimers are all over the ads and apps, and the companies impart that bettors are far more likely to lose than win and that betting is meant to be fun, not a way to pay the bills. There are mechanisms to cut off bettors or for bettors to ban themselves.

But with expanded access, problem gambling is inevitable.

“It would be very challenging for me, personally, to stay off of the apps,” Wolff, the former bettor, said.

He said the access to mobile gambling makes it different than other common addictions. “I can’t get that instant satisfaction, that instant fix on my phone like I can with gambling,” he said. “If I see an ad for alcohol and don’t have any in my house, I have to make a conscious decision to go out, purchase some and then consume it. Versus, if I’m watching the game, I see a a gambling ad, and I think, ‘Oh, let me see what they have for the second half,’ And I can place $10, $15 on something.”

He stopped gambling when he got married and his responsibilities grew. Losing money through bets seemed to have heavier consequences than before. Moving back to Nebraska helped, too.

“It’s easy (to avoid the apps) now because we don’t have them here,” he said.