Despite some consideration earlier this year, Ohio lawmakers appear unlikely to pass iGaming bills anytime soon.
Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman told reporters last week that online casino and lottery game bills are unlikely to pass in the next year, per Statehouse News Bureau. He said the state has seen a lot of gambling expansion in the past five years.
“At some point, there is a saturation point – there’s a group of people who don’t gamble, there’s a group of people who do, maybe some people participate in different ways,” Huffman told reporters.
Lawmakers did consider adding iGaming and iLottery measures in the state budget this summer but ultimately passed on the idea. Governor Mike DeWine came out against iGaming expansion at the time. DeWine is in office until January 2027.
“To put a casino in everybody’s hands 24/7 is probably not a great idea, and I think it will cause more pain and suffering in regard to gaming addiction, so I’m just not for it,” DeWine said.
While only seven states have legalised iGaming, three border Ohio: Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Previous Ohio iGaming conversations
Along with the budget discussions, there were two bills filed to legalise iGaming earlier this year. Lawmakers held hearings on the bills, but they did not advance through their committees. Both would have created 11 licences for the state’s casinos and racinos.
Last year, as part of a study commission on the future of gambling in Ohio, a group of Republican lawmakers suggested legalising iGaming.
“While the state should proceed with caution and care with any expansion of this magnitude, with the right regulatory framework, these types of gaming can thrive with nominal impact to our current system,” the representatives wrote.
Senator Niraj Antani, a key figure in the legalisation of Ohio sports betting, introduced an iGaming bill late last year. Antani did not seek reelection and no longer serves in the legislature, but at the time he said he wanted to get the conversation started, acknowledging it would be a long process. His bill tied online platforms to the state’s four brick-and-mortar casinos and set a tax rate of 15%.
Ohio sports betting history
DeWine signed online sports betting legislation into law in 2021 after multiple years of legislative discussions. The initial legislation carried a 10% tax.
Just months after the market launched in January 2023, DeWine succeeded in urging lawmakers to double the tax rate to 20%. He again proposed doubling the tax rate to 40% during this year’s budget discussions, but lawmakers rejected that increase.
This spring, the Ohio Casino Control Commission sent cease-and-desist letters to Kalshi, Robinhood and Crypto.com for offering sports event contracts. The letters said the markets meet the definition of sports betting and require licences issued by the commission.
The OCCC later issued a letter to sportsbook operators warning that offering prediction markets could jeopardise their licences. That came after FanDuel announced its intentions to launch an event-trading product.
Earlier this month, Kalshi filed a lawsuit against the OCCC and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. The case joined a growing list of federal and state lawsuits concerning whether prediction markets are illegal sports betting. State regulators contend the prediction markets circumvent state laws, while the operators argue they are federally regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, allowing them to operate nationwide.
Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman echoes Governor Mike DeWine’s view that the state has reached a saturation point after years of gambling expansion.