The Ohio House passed an amended sports betting bill on May 28. The bill allows for statewide mobile and retail wagering. The bill heads to the Senate, which has its own legislation.
The two bodies differ on which agency should regulate the new gaming option.
House sponsors, Rep. Dave Greenspan and Rep. Brigid Kelley, favor the lottery, citing an opinion from the Legislative Service Commission that anything else would be illegal. The Senate supports the Casino Control Commission.
Another wrinkle is whether the Ohio Constitution even permits sports betting. It isn’t expressly prohibited, but it is also not permitted under the definition of casino gaming.
“Ohio needs to come to terms between both chambers as to the best regulator to regulate sports betting that can create a dynamic market,” consultant Brendan Bussmann of Global Market Advisors told Sports Handle.
States with sports betting run by lotteries have offered consumers fewer choices and less competition.
“My preference would be with the commission. They’ll be in a better position to create a dynamic market than the lottery, which is a risk-averse situation as we’ve seen in other states,” Bussmann said.
The current bills are good news for operators: reasonable tax rates (10 percent in the House, 6.25 percent in the Senate), remote registration and statewide mobile, retail wagering at casinos, horse racetracks, VFWs and other fraternal organizations, and no payouts to the professional sports leagues.
“We’re moving it now to start negotiations with the Senate over the summer so, when we come back early in the fall, we’ll be able to get a bill on the governor’s desk by the end of the year,” Greenspan told Legal Sports Report.
Greenspan expected the bill to move last November, but it stalled in the Finance Committee. The bill carried over to 2020, and Greenspan thought it was ready to move early in the year. After a focus on the budget and then the coronavirus pandemic, the Finance Committee didn’t begin meeting until May.
The Ohio legislative session runs to the end of the year. The governor’s press secretary indicated that he wants sports betting legislation passed before the November elections.
Kelley couldn’t agree more.
“Ohioans who want to wager on sports have to go spend their money somewhere else in another state,” she said. “Well it’s either that or they call ‘their guy,’ or that’s how I understand it. But we can change that.”
Yet not everyone supports the measures.
“The truth is that HB 194 functions as a reverse Robin Hood: taking from the poor and giving to the rich,” leaders with the Citizens for Community Values, a socially conservative organization, said in a letter to state lawmakers.
