Ohio State Legislature Approves Sports Betting Bill
Andrew Weber/Getty Images. Pictured: Brutus Buckeye.
Sports betting appears to be coming to Ohio in 2022.
The Ohio state senate passed a bill to legalize sports betting for both retail and mobile on Wednesday by a 31-1 vote.
Ohio Senate overwhelmingly passes online and retail sports betting bill; set to go to the House today for final approval. Expected to pass House and be signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine. Retail and online sporrs betting set to start sometime in 2022.
— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) December 8, 2021
The bill was then proposed to the House which approved the H.B. 29 bill by a 72-12 vote.
BREAKING: Ohio sports betting bill passes House 72-12, not long after Senate passes identical bill. Legislation now goes to Gov. Mike DeWine, who is expected to sign shortly. Bill includes online; retail betting at casinos, stadiums & bars. Betting set to begin sometime in 2022.
— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) December 8, 2021
It will now be passed along for final approval from the state's governor, Mike DeWine.
The Ohio state senate had previously approved a sports betting bill in June but it was not fully approved by the House.
DeWine had previously urged the legislature to pass a bill and is fully expected to approve H.B. 29.
Sports betting in Ohio has been debated across stakeholders for the last three years. Lawmakers have disagreed on how it should be regulated, taxed and licensed in the state. The first bill came in July 2018.
If the bill is passed, the hope is that sports betting operations will be conducted in the state sometime in the spring of 2022, although it is unclear whether that will just be retail or have mobile included.
According to Cleveland.com, the proposed "compromised" bill would have sports betting regulated by the Ohio Casino Control Commission and would have various classes for sports betting operators.
- 25 "Class A" licenses. These would be the major betting operators that would operate mostly on mobile.
- 40 "Class B" licenses. These would include brick-and-mortar operators such as casinos and racetracks.
- Thousands of "Class C" licenses. This would allow liquor stores, bars and restaurants to obtain licenses and have betting kiosks through the Ohio Lottery.
Lawmakers have proposed taxing sports gaming revenue at 10%, with the majority of the tax dollars split between public and private schools.
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