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You can place sports bets at any number of top internationally licensed wagering sites from the state of Ohio. Soon you might be able to place bets at local bars and convenience stores as well, similar to buying lottery tickets.
Though it seems absurb to us, some interests in Ohio have mentioned the idea of betting in more mainstream locales, not just race tracks and casinos.
It won't happen by Super Bowl 53 however.
"We've had two bills introduced called placeholder bills expressing the intent of the general assembly to investigate sports wagering in Ohio and if we're to do it, how is it going to be done," said State Senator John Eklund, a Republican from Geauga County who sponsored the Senate version.
"What we're doing over in the Senate is we're assembling a list of parties who might be interested in this particular type of legislation, anticipating that we will take a series of meetings with them to sort of get the lay of the land and to sort of see where people's temperature is," Eklund said. "Starting with that process do the necessary investigation we have to do to come up with a concrete proposal that we would then present to the general assembly in some sort of an amended bill or a substitute bill."
The process will take some time.
State Rep. David Greenspan has a similar bill to Eklund's in the house.
"We're looking at this with a holistic approach," Greenspan said. "We have no pre-conceived timeline as to when we want to introduce something as the bill comes together. We're going to work together with the Senate and the house to come up with a comprehensive bill. It's one issue, it's one policy we've got two chambers and we're going to work collectively and collaboratively to come up with a program that we believe will be in the best interest of the residents of Ohio and help promote our economy as well," he said.
Eklund added: "We're at the very early stages but heaven knows there's plenty of interest been expressed about this and we intend to be very deliberative and thoughtful in how we go about investigating this."
Some in Ohio will have the opportunity to place bets on Buckeyes, Browns and Bengals games from a nearby casino nonetheless.
West Virginia's Mountaineer Casino is expected to have a sports book up and running at some point during the NFL season. That casino is a mere hour's drive from Youngstown, an hour-and-a-half from Canton and Akron, and just 22 minutes from Steubenville.
- Ean Lamb, Gambling911.com
