Nebraska
13 Nebraska Senators assert stance against mobile gambling as tax debate continues
LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) – In the wake of casino legalization in Nebraska, and as gambling races its way to the forefront of the sports and entertainment industry, some lawmakers say it’s time to pump the brakes in the Cornhusker State.
With a special session geared toward slashing Nebraska’s property tax rate having reached its 14th day of debate Friday, the expansion of gambling legalization in the state could be called upon as a potential solution, which is why a group of 13 senators released the following statement:
Senators John Lowe, Ray Aguilar, Joni Albrecht, Robert Clements, Robert Dover, Steve Erdman, Steve Halloran, Brian Hardin, Rick Holdcroft, Loren Lippincott, Rita Sanders, and Julie Slama issued the statement.
Mobile wagering has rapidly increased in popularity over the past half decade, since May 2018 when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a 1992 federal law banning sports gambling in most states. Prior to that court decision, sports betters could only get their fix — legally, at least — in Las Vegas. Now, sportsbooks and online casinos like Fanduel and DraftKings are available at the press of a button in 26 states.
Nebraska’s neighbor to the east, Iowa, made it legal in August 2019 while southward in Kansas, the law began allowing mobile gambling in the summer of 2022. And it’s important to remember that legalization of mobile gambling isn’t limited to sports betting. In some states, popular sportsbook apps have become full-blown pocket casinos, with games like roulette, poker and blackjack.
Lawmakers in Nebraska, though, have remained steadfast in largely blocking the mobile gaming industry from entering its borders, and this group of 13 state senators is set on keeping it that way.
Their statement Friday cites data from the National Council on Problem Gambling, which says online sports betting has increased the risk of gambling addiction by 30 percent, while the council’s helpline reports a 150 percent spike in calls. The data also shows that 20 percent of college students gamble using financial aid dollars.
But the argument from their opposition boils down to the amount of money being pulled in by the states who have already legalized mobile casinos and sportsbooks.
Since changing the law in 2019, Iowa has seen over $9 billion in wagers placed and, in turn, has collected $44 million in tax revenue with just a 7.3 percent hold — the lowest of any state besides Nevada. In states with a higher hold percentage, like Louisiana, $6 billion in wagers has turned into $108 million in tax revenue.
Nebraska isn’t totally anti-gambling in comparison to some states. Casino licenses have been granted in several places across the state, including a WarHorse Casino in Lincoln, which opened in 2022, and a brand new one in Omaha.
With that in mind, the group of 13 senators fear that, as states which have preceded Nebraska in this process have shown, mobile gambling will soon follow suit.
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LINCOLN, Neb — Mathias Schubert, a leading figure in optical ellipsometry, has been named a 2025 National Academy of Inventors Fellow, the highest accolade from the organization. Schubert, a J.A. Woollam Distinguished Professor of Engineering at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, joins 13 other faculty members from the university who have received this honor. The recognition is awarded to researchers whose work has been transformed into inventions and technologies with societal impact.
Schubert has dedicated 20 years at Nebraska to tackling significant challenges, from ellipsometry to international collaborations. His university faculty webpage lists nine patents and 11 papers, but Schubert believes there may be hundreds more. “To tell you the truth, I have no idea how many patents or papers there are with my name on them. I’m not focusing on that,” Schubert said. “Other people say I should write a patent or a paper for so many things. I tell them I’d rather try this or I want to try that because new things keep popping up on my radar and pursuing those things is what makes my work so exciting.”
His research focuses on using ellipsometry to explore ways to enhance the electrical capabilities of materials, leading to advancements in semiconductors, optics, and displays. Schubert’s work has resulted in multiple inventions, including the optical Hall effect in semiconductors and ellipsometric instrumentation development.
Currently, Schubert is part of an international team working to identify new semiconductor materials for high-power applications. The team is particularly interested in gallium oxide, a material with wide-bandgap semiconductor properties suitable for high-voltage switches and power devices. Due to the scarcity of high-quality gallium oxide crystals in nature, the team employs a process akin to farm-to-table methods to create semiconductor wafers.
James Speck at the University of California, Santa Barbara, initiates the process by “growing” crystals from raw materials. These are then transformed into ultrathin film wafers by Debdeep Jena from Cornell University and Zbigniew Galazka from the Leibniz Institute for Crystal Growth in Germany. Schubert’s team in Nebraska evaluates the wafers’ quality and performance before they are made available to consumers.
Schubert expressed excitement about the ongoing project and the potential discoveries ahead. “I actually, honestly, have the opinion that if what I do is of interest, the problems will find me,” Schubert said. “There’s this concept of doing things at different frequencies, different mathematical approaches, that’s what you see all over the place. So many brilliant minds out there, and everyone’s going to have ideas. That’s exciting, to work with those people together, just listening to them and learning.”
The 2025 class of fellows includes 169 researchers from across the U.S., collectively holding over 5,300 U.S. patents and including Nobel Prize recipients.
After trailing for nearly the entire game, Michigan needed an improbable hero to rescue an imperfect performance in a top-five rendezvous with Nebraska. Hitting the game winner with 1:07 to go, freshman guard Trey McKenney had the biggest moment of his young career.
“The baseline was kind of open, because they were forcing us to the baseline,” McKenney said. “They wouldn’t give us middle drives. So I just had to take advantage of that and get one in for a layup.”
Graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg drove in from the right wing and was quickly doubled, akin to how the Cornhuskers guarded dribble drives all game. McKenney’s defender rotated to junior center Aday Mara in the post. Lendeborg found McKenney, who, with a quick fake took to the left baseline bumping into guard Sam Hoiberg and laying it in through contact.
“I thought he got to a spot and played with power,” May said.
In the same breath, May knocked the Wolverines’ offensive rhythm. He lauded how Nebraska’s rotations limited them all game. But in the pivotal moment, McKenney took one of the few things the Cornhuskers were giving them and allowed Michigan to escape.
After May wrapped up his assessment of the Wolverines’ shortcomings on the offensive end, he brought it back to McKenney — but pointed to a moment arguably as big as the go-ahead layup.
“I thought his three free throws were probably the biggest points in the game,” May said. “Sandfort just missed a free throw. We were down (seven). We were in a funk, in a fog. Elliot made a nice pass to Trey (who) jumped up aggressively. Luckily, we were able to get the foul on that play and Hoiberg got under his feet a little bit. He knocks down those three free throws and you can almost see that sense of belief that now we’re getting stops. Our defense is on, now let’s find a way, because at that point you’re down two possessions versus three.”
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