Ohio’s Lawmakers Mull Restricting Sports Gambling in the State

If you have been a regular sports bettor in Ohio, you may have missed the news – your state needs saving. This is the argument put forward by a new bill fittingly called “Save Ohio Sports Act.”

Ohio Needed Saving from Sports Betting – You Just Didn’t Know

The idea is to further trim the scope of sports betting activity locally, as the current industry has been threatening the well-being of young men. The new draft proposals seek to specifically limit Internet gambling, as explained by Reps. Gary Click, Jonathan Newman, and Riordan McClain.

The measure goes a step further to restrict gambling to in-person wagers only, and eliminate prop bets, parlays, and in-play bets, essentially trimming some of the most popular – even if riskier by nature – types of wagers.

In-play and prop bets account for the majority of bets placed with sportsbooks online, and they have been a driver of fan engagement, excitement, and revenue for bookmakers, as well as a solid windfall for the state. 

While this sounds ambitious and meant to protect consumers, Ohio only collected $372,550 from retail sportsbooks’ revenue in February, compared to $69.8 million from the online sector. 

In other words, demand for retail sportsbooks is almost non-existent, and an abrupt change in legislation could only end up driving people across state lines or even to offshore websites, which will continue to provide players with the options to place any bet they like. 

While fears about the rate of problem gambling across the nation, and in Ohio, persist, banning a functioning model would be counter-productive to say the least. The economic windfall from sports betting online, though, would most likely stop many lawmakers from throwing their support behind the issue. 

In the meantime, Ohio has gone after prediction markets, alleging that they are a form of gambling and that they need to stop operating locally. A judge’s ruling in March specifically singled out Kalshi.