COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Senate approved legislation to legalize sports betting in Ohio on Wednesday along with a bill to allow college athletes for the first time to earn money based on the use of their names, images and likenesses.
Both bills now go to the House for consideration.
The sports betting bill would allow 53 licenses to be issued for taking wagers on professional and college sports. That’s an increase from 40 licenses in the original version of the bill.
The legislation was approved by a vote of 30-2.
Twenty-five of those licenses would be available to Ohio’s casinos and horse racing tracks called racinos, which could then partner with outside companies to provide sports betting online or mobile apps.
Another 33 licenses would be for brick-and-mortar locations that could include casinos, racinos, sports bars or betting shops where people can watch and wager on games.
“Our coalition is grateful for the care in crafting a bill providing opportunities for fair market access to Ohio’s pro sports organizations, which produces the games that make sports betting possible,” the Ohio Professional Sports Coalition said in a statement.
The bill also allows betting on Ohio university football and basketball games, which the Inter-University Council of Ohio opposes. Council CEO Bruce Johnson says legalized sports betting will require universities to monitor athletes to ensure they are not involved in point shaving and students are not dealing inside information to bettors.
The bill also allows for betting kiosks in bars and nightclubs that serve hard liquor. Betting will be limited to point spreads, total points scored in a game and money lines, which is an odds-based bet on which team will win. It also imposes a $200 a day betting limit.
In addition, the legislation would permit electronic bingo at veteran’s and fraternal organizations overseen by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and sports pool betting run by the Ohio Lottery Commission.
The Ohio Casino Control Commission will begin accepting applications for sports betting licenses on Jan. 1 and begin awarding licenses by April 1. Ohio could earn about $17 million in tax revenue for the fiscal year beginning July 1 of 2022 and $23 million the following year, according to a legislative analysis. The bill calls for 98% of the tax to be deposited in an education fund and the remaining 2% in a fund for problem sports gambling.
Under the college athlete compensation bill, universities or college athletic conferences would be prevented from punishing athletes if they are compensated based on their sports performance. The legislation was approved unanimously.
Such compensation could involve anything from a book-signing at a bookstore to a deal with a local restaurant. Exceptions include sponsorships for marijuana, alcohol, tobacco and casinos, which are not permitted under the bill, according to bill sponsor Sen. Niraj Antani, a Dayton-area Republican.
Athletes would have to notify universities 15 days ahead of signing endorsement contracts. The Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee approved the bill Tuesday, the same day Ohio State University football coach Ryan Day testified that quick passage was needed to ensure other states with similar legislation would not put Ohio schools at a recruiting disadvantage.
Since 2019, at least 16 states — including Arizona, Nebraska, and Michigan — have approved legislation allowing college athletes to make money through advertisements, sponsorship deals and other types of promotions based on their athletic success.
Five of those bills — approved by Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and New Mexico — become law July 1.
