Several Ohio lawmakers want to consider legalizing online gambling

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) – Sources Are availableThe National Problem Gambling Hotline can be reached at 1-800-GAMBLER. Ohio can be reached at 1-800-589-9966.

Several Ohio lawmakers tasked with analyzing the current state of the gambling industry have indicated they want their colleagues to look into legalizing online casino and lottery games.

The findings, released last Friday by Ohio’s Study Commission on the Future of Gaming, touch on the industry at large, from Ohio’s land-based casinos and racinos to its lottery system. Early discussions about iLottery and iGaming offerings were high on the to-do list for the commission, which met four times.

“We believe iLottery and iGaming can be a net benefit to the state of Ohio,” Republican Reps. Jay Edwards (R-Nelsonville), Jeff LaRe (R-Violet Twp.) and Cindy Abrams (R-Harrison) wrote in a letter accompanying the study.

She and nearly all other members of the legislature, including Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Westlake), have communicated the need for legalization in a careful and deliberate manner, the study found.

“The reality is that many other states are moving in this direction, and Ohioans are already tapping into the illicit market,” Sweeney wrote in her own letter. “The General Assembly should seriously consider iGaming and iLottery with expanded screening.”

House Bill 33, the biennial budget, created the commission, which has since ceased to exist. It had no legislative endgame, Edwards said during the first hearing. But he said then that discussions about iGaming and iLottery offerings in Ohio were a matter of if, not when.

The industry remains divided on the issue. Some are strong supporters, but Dan Reinhard, who lobbies for JACK Entertainment in Cleveland, said he worries it could threaten companies with greater liabilities to Ohio.

“What seems to be pretty consistent is that your physical properties are being cannibalized by iGaming,” Reinhard said in an interview earlier this year. “When you look at a dangerous product with a high prevalence of gambling addiction that’s going to eat away at your existing physical base, you look at what’s it going to do. How’s it going to benefit Ohio? Ohio is going to potentially lose jobs.”

Problem gambling may have the highest rate of suicidal ideation overall of any addictive disorder, according to the state’s Pause Before You Play website. Even before the legal start date for sports betting and other sports gambling licensees, a 2022 survey found that one in five Ohioans are considered at least “high-risk” gamblers. In 2023, calls to the state’s hotline rose significantly.

Other findings of the commission and the full testimonies can be read here.