Ohio Senate and House Agree on Sports Betting Legislation, Launch Before 2023

• OH Sen. Kirk Schuring Says Senate and House Agree on Sports Betting Legislation
• Next Step: Conference Committee Approval, Then to House and Senate Floor 
• Sports Betting Should Become Legal in Ohio by No Later Than Jan. 1, 2023

OH Sen. Kirk Schuring Says Senate and House Agree on Sports Betting Legislation

In one of Ohio Senator Kirk Schuring’s recent chats with Canton radio station 1480 WHBC, he shared some exciting news with his constituents, indicating that the state Senate and House of Representatives have both finally agreed on a workable version of sports betting legislation.

Schuring told his radio hosts:

We have an agreement on sports gaming.

The Senator is most likely referring to the “conceptual agreement” that we recently reported on, the one that was mentioned in a Tweet that said Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) and other Ohio lawmakers have reached a “conceptual agreement” on legalized sports betting in the state.

To have that information confirmed publicly and on the air by Schuring has to be reassuring for Buckeye State gamblers who have been waiting since 2018, when the Supreme Court overturned PASPA, for legal sports betting in their state.

Of course, plenty of steps still needs to happen before the legislation can become law.

Next Step: Conference Committee Approval, Then to House and Senate Floor

The amount of political red tape that Ohio lawmakers must first sort through to get sports betting legislation passed is staggering, a challenging and time-consuming process that more than half the other states in the U.S. have already been through.

Schuring gave some hints as to what is next, saying:

I expect the conference committee to meet this week and for the conference report to be approved, and then it will go to the House and Senate floors this week. We’ve got everything staged up.

The Senator explained that he and other lawmakers have worked together and “we’ve got the concepts that we worked out,” but now the challenge is taking those concepts and creating passable legislation out of it that pleases both chambers and both sides of the aisle.

Even if all goes well, though, it could still be some time before that Ohio market can launch.

Sports Betting Should Become Legal in Ohio by No Later Than Jan. 1, 2023

This sports betting legislation is a part of House Bill 29, which, if passed, would amend section 5753.031 in part “to legalize and regulate sports gaming in this state, to levy a tax on businesses that provide sports gaming, and to make other changes to the Gambling Law.”

According to what Rep Seitz told the Statehouse News Bureau that even if workable sports betting legislation where to be passed some time in December, it could still take all next year to actually launch that market to the public.

So that means that by January 2023 Ohio bettors might be able to place wagers closer to home instead of using offshore sportsbooks or having to travel to neighboring states where sports betting is already legal.

Keep checking back for all the latest news and updates on this exciting Ohio story.