CLEVELAND — Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and NCAA President Charlie Baker have joined together in urging the Ohio Casino Control Commission to make a change when it comes to betting on college sports. They'd like to see the commission remove college prop bets on the individual achievements of athletes.
"They believe they're seeing a rise in basically bettors harassing student athletes over the results of sporting events," said Robert Linnehan, Sports Betting Regulation expert and editor of Sports Betting Dime.
And it started literally three weeks into sports betting in Ohio last year when the University of Dayton Men's Basketball Coach Anthony Grant was forced to address messages of hate received by some of his players from gamblers upset about recent losses. Grant emotionally reminded fans that these are just kids, 18 to 22 years of age.
"This sickens me," said Grant. "They have families. They don't deserve that. Mental health is real."
DeWine cited the incident in lending his support.
“One year into sports gambling in Ohio, we have seen a marketplace develop where a number of bad actors have engaged in unacceptable behavior by making threats against student-athletes in Ohio and across the country,” said DeWine. “By amending rules to focus bets on the team and away from individual athletes, I believe we can improve the marketplace in Ohio and better protect student-athletes from unnecessary and potentially harmful threats.”
NCAA President Charlie Baker echoed the governor's call for change.
“The data is clear that student-athletes are getting harassed by bettors. Sports betting without appropriate controls poses real risks to the well-being of student-athletes and to the integrity of collegiate competition – risks which are heightened by individual prop bets,” he said. “On behalf of the thousands of student-athletes, administrators and game officials in Ohio, I thank Governor DeWine for acting quickly to protect student-athletes and game integrity while responsibly regulating the growing sports betting industry in Ohio.”
“I absolutely support Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and NCAA President Charlie Baker and their efforts to change Ohio’s sports wagering rules,” said Gene Smith, Senior Vice President and Wolfe Foundation-Eugene Smith Endowed Athletics Director. “Collegiate athletes should not be faced with harmful threats, and changing the wagering rules in Ohio can help put an end to this.”
The Casino Control Commission, while recognizing someone's right to free speech, also recognized their right to ban someone from gambling and put that threat into a first-of-its-kind measure that DeWine signed into law last summer. They also received funding last week to set up a sports wagering harassment protection program to help college athletes deal with and report such harassment.
This idea, though, of eliminating prop bets in Ohio is one the commission was actually already asked to consider. Two years ago, we told you how Ohio State University sent a letter to the commission urging them to limit college sports betting to just football and basketball and to limit the bets on those sports to only the outcome of the game, no prop bets. The request failed then but faces strong consideration now.
"The Ohio Casino Control Commission, they're constantly taking requests to add bets. I haven't seen a lot of requests to prohibit bets," said Linnehan. "This is definitely the first major request that I've seen."
As the Casino Control Commission considers the changes, it has given sports book operators until next Monday, Feb. 12 to offer any objections. As of late Monday, they had yet to receive any. They next meet on Feb. 21.
