COLUMBUS, Ohio — Three years ago newly elected Governor Mike DeWine made it clear Ohio would be getting sports betting.
"It's coming to Ohio whether people want it or not,” DeWine told News 5 in November 2018 just a few months after the U.S. Supreme Court opened the door to legalized sports betting outside of Nevada.
Since then 32 states have legalized it, seven this year.
Ohio looked like they were going to join them this summer when the legislature was on pace to pass it by June 30 but the house but the brakes on wanting more time to study the matter in the fall.
That process was thought would wrap up by Halloween but it didn’t, then Thanksgiving came and went as well with nothing. But now in this second week of December, the conference committee ironing out the final details will meet Wednesday at 11 a.m.
If they vote to approve the conference report it will then be sent to the house and senate for an up or down vote which could be as early as Wednesday afternoon when both chambers meet.
If they approve it would then go on to DeWine’s desk for his signature which is expected before the end of the year.
In January DeWine told News 5 people “we have people who are betting all of the time in Ohio online and they're going to do this and so allowing us to keep some of this money for education seems to me to make sense."
Final details have not been released but it's expected to include 25 mobile licenses which are where most sports bets are placed these days.
Forty brick and mortar locations either standalone or in casinos, racinos, and ballparks as well as an undetermined amount of self serve kiosks in bars and restaurants. When they were trying to get this passed by June 30 the goal was to have it up and running by April of next year that now appears to be pushed back to no later than January 1, 2023.
