Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman recently announced he has formed a 7-member committee that will convene in May to research gambling regulation issues. State Senator Kirk Schuring will chair the group. Huffman noted gambling regulation was one of the primary issues that prevented sports betting bills from passing in 2020.
Huffman stated, “The growing gaming industry is something Ohio must be prepared to address. This committee will ask the tough questions ranging from best practices to oversight. I look forward to their recommendations.”
Governor Mike DeWine recently stated, “We have people who are betting all the time in Ohio online and so allowing us to keep some of this money for education in the state seems to me to make sense. There will be sports betting coming to Ohio I suspect this year.”
Currently four casinos and seven racinos operate in Ohio. Sports betting operators include Penn National (Barstool), Caesars/William Hill, Churchill Downs (TwinSpires), JACK Entertainment, MGM (BetMGM) and WynnBet.
The legislature still has not sorted out whether the Casino Control Commission (favored by Senators) or the Ohio Lottery (favored by the House) will regulate sports betting. Other issues include whether to allow statewide mobile betting, tax rates, application and license fees and whether to allow betting on professional and college sports.
Since the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act nearly three years ago, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Indiana (in that order) have launched online sports wagering; Michigan recently launched its first10 statewide mobile platforms. — with more to come — last Friday.
