{"id":123729,"date":"2020-01-07T00:39:36","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T08:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=123729"},"modified":"2020-01-07T08:18:37","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T16:18:37","slug":"ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports Betting Bills Pushed by Ohio Lawmakers Similar, But Still Feature Fundamental Differences"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Ohio State Legislature gets ready to reconvene in Columbus later this month, lawmakers are still considering two ways to legalize sports betting in the state.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Ohio state Rep. Dave Greenspan discusses his sports betting bill at a House Finance Committee hearing last fall. It’s one of two sports betting bills currently being considered by the state legislature. (Image: The Ohio Channel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While both bills would allow retail sportsbooks at the state\u2019s casinos and racinos and mobile sports betting applications that could be used anywhere within the Buckeye State, there are substantial differences between the two.<\/p>\n

Most notably, the House bill would grant administrative authority to the Ohio Lottery Commission (OLC). The Senate plan would allow the Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) to oversee it. The OCCC oversees the state’s four casinos, while the OLC also administers the state’s seven racinos<\/a> that feature video lottery terminals.<\/p>\n

Under the House bill, the state tax revenue generated from sports betting by the lottery would go to support education. The Senate\u2019s bill directs the tax revenue to the state\u2019s general fund.<\/p>\n

While the bills were filed last year, their sponsors do not need to refile the legislation this year because they were filed in the current General Assembly session. If a sports betting bill is not passed by the end of this year, new bills would need to be filed next year for lawmakers in the next session to consider them.<\/p>\n

House Version May Pass Chamber by February<\/h2>\n

State Rep. Dave Greenspan (R-Westlake), who sponsored the House bill along with state Rep. Brigid Kelly (D-Cincinnati), told Casino.org<\/i> on Monday he was encouraged that Speaker of the House Larry Householder has made advancing the sports betting bill a priority for 2020.<\/p>\n

In addition, he said he and Kelly have talked with their colleagues in the House Finance Committee<\/a>, and he said they do not expect any further amendments to their bill.<\/p>\n

We believe that there is overwhelming support for the bill in its current form,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t anticipate any amendments being offered in the House at this point. My hope and expectation is we\u2019re able to move the bill out of committee and over to the Senate sometime in February, and that we\u2019ll be able to have a robust discussion in the Senate.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Greenspan added that he thinks it\u2019s important that the funding from sports betting go to support public education, and at least one veteran Ohio education advocate believes that Householder may look to use sports betting revenue as part of his push to reform how the state\u2019s public school districts are funded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Speaker Householder really is determined to fix school funding and knows it’s going to take more money,\u201d Bill Phillis, the executive director of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding and a former state assistant superintendent for education, told Casino.org<\/i>. \u201cThen of course, some sort of gaming, in my opinion, would probably fit into that scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Bill Progressing<\/h2>\n

State Sen. John Eklund (R-Munson Township), who along with state Sen. Sean O\u2019Brien (D-Bazetta) serve as primary sponsors for the Senate bill, told Casino.org<\/i> that bill received a couple of hearings in the fall. He claimed it was part of a process to educate their colleagues about sports betting and dispel some myths, especially about online gaming.<\/p>\n

He also said the bills’ sponsors haven\u2019t had a chance to meet recently to discuss their legislation, but that opportunity will likely come in the near future.<\/p>\n

However, while the lawmakers do have all of 2020 to get a bill hammered out, it\u2019s also an election year. If past election years serve as precedent, Eklund said it will likely mean lawmakers will be back home in March campaigning in the primary and then spending the summer working on their general election.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just a concern that Eklund has for this bill, but for a number of initiatives he\u2019s working on. That could mean if consensus on the sports betting bill isn’t reached early in the session, then it may not be hashed out until after the November general election.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have great hope that this year it will get done and it will get done right. But to say it favors an early disposition or a later disposition, who knows,\u201d he told Casino.org<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Where Should Funding Go?<\/h2>\n

Both Greenspan and Eklund said their bills are about 90 percent similar, and both are optimistic they can reach a consensus. That said, they do have some fundamental differences, including how the funding should be spent.<\/p>\n

\n

While Greenspan likes that directing the funds to the lottery would bolster education funding, Eklund isn\u2019t sure that sports betting revenues, which he estimates to be about $30 million annually, would best help the state if that pool of money is divvied up among the more than 600 school districts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

There may be some worthwhile education initiatives considered for funding, he said. But it\u2019s money that could also go toward other projects, like drug treatment centers.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s really a question of let’s find where you could get the most bang for that buck, and to me on that level, the options are endless and I think any are worth considering. I really do,\u201d Eklund told Casino.org<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n

Sports Betting: Lottery vs. Casino Control<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ohio isn’t the first state to debate whether sports betting should fall under lottery or a gaming commission’s jurisdiction. Of the 20 states plus the District of Columbia that have passed sports betting laws, eight have placed sports betting under the auspices of their lottery.<\/p>\n

Lottery:<\/strong> Delaware, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, West Virginia, District of Columbia*, Montana*, and Tennessee*.<\/p>\n

Gaming Commission:<\/strong> Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado*, Illinois*, and Michigan*.<\/p>\n

Tribal:<\/strong> New Mexico, North Carolina*.<\/p>\n

*-Sports betting legal but not yet active.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Ohio State Legislature gets ready to reconvene in Columbus later this month, lawmakers are still considering two ways to legalize sports betting in the state. While both bills would allow retail sportsbooks at the state\u2019s casinos and racinos and mobile sports betting applications that could be used anywhere within the Buckeye State, there are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":123730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOhio Sports Betting Bills Similar But Feature Fundamental Differences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While both allow both retail sportsbooks and mobile sports betting applications, the bills differ on regulatory oversight and funding.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ohio Sports Betting Bills Similar But Feature Fundamental Differences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While both allow both retail sportsbooks and mobile sports betting applications, the bills differ on regulatory oversight and funding.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-07T08:39:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-07T16:18:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Greenspan2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Bittenbender\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Bittenbender\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/\",\"name\":\"Ohio Sports Betting Bills Similar But Feature Fundamental Differences\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Greenspan2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-07T08:39:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-07T16:18:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb30e765d812fc9b38b333f8d13068b2\"},\"description\":\"While both allow both retail sportsbooks and mobile sports betting applications, the bills differ on regulatory oversight and funding.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Greenspan2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Greenspan2.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"(Image: The Ohio Channel)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sports Betting\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Sports Betting Bills Pushed by Ohio Lawmakers Similar, But Still Feature Fundamental Differences\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb30e765d812fc9b38b333f8d13068b2\",\"name\":\"Steve Bittenbender\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-7-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-7-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Steve Bittenbender\"},\"description\":\"Steve Bittenbender covers Midwest and Gulport news for Casino.org. He also specializes in sports betting and horse racing. Steve is a veteran reporter and brings more than two decades of experience covering sports, business and politics. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Steve has also covered major collegiate and professional sports for the Associated Press and the Louisville Courier-Journal and is frequently featured on local network TV newscasts and podcasts for his horse racing business and legislative expertise. A Reuters contributor, he has also previously served as editor for Government Security News. Steve lives in Louisville, Kentucky -- the epicenter of the US horse racing industry -- with his wife and son. He is also an avid poker player, having learned from his uncle as a wholesome after-school pastime with cookies and milk. Contact Steve at stevebittenbender@casino.org.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/steve-bittenbender\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ohio Sports Betting Bills Similar But Feature Fundamental Differences","description":"While both allow both retail sportsbooks and mobile sports betting applications, the bills differ on regulatory oversight and funding.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ohio Sports Betting Bills Similar But Feature Fundamental Differences","og_description":"While both allow both retail sportsbooks and mobile sports betting applications, the bills differ on regulatory oversight and funding.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2020-01-07T08:39:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-01-07T16:18:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Greenspan2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Steve Bittenbender","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Steve Bittenbender","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/","name":"Ohio Sports Betting Bills Similar But Feature Fundamental Differences","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Greenspan2.jpg","datePublished":"2020-01-07T08:39:36+00:00","dateModified":"2020-01-07T16:18:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb30e765d812fc9b38b333f8d13068b2"},"description":"While both allow both retail sportsbooks and mobile sports betting applications, the bills differ on regulatory oversight and funding.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Greenspan2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Greenspan2.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080,"caption":"(Image: The Ohio Channel)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ohio-sports-betting-bills-similar-but-feature-fundamental-differences\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sports Betting","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Sports Betting Bills Pushed by Ohio Lawmakers Similar, But Still Feature Fundamental Differences"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb30e765d812fc9b38b333f8d13068b2","name":"Steve Bittenbender","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-7-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-7-1-96x96.png","caption":"Steve Bittenbender"},"description":"Steve Bittenbender covers Midwest and Gulport news for Casino.org. He also specializes in sports betting and horse racing. Steve is a veteran reporter and brings more than two decades of experience covering sports, business and politics. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Steve has also covered major collegiate and professional sports for the Associated Press and the Louisville Courier-Journal and is frequently featured on local network TV newscasts and podcasts for his horse racing business and legislative expertise. A Reuters contributor, he has also previously served as editor for Government Security News. Steve lives in Louisville, Kentucky -- the epicenter of the US horse racing industry -- with his wife and son. He is also an avid poker player, having learned from his uncle as a wholesome after-school pastime with cookies and milk. Contact Steve at stevebittenbender@casino.org.","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/steve-bittenbender\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}