Ohio Lawmakers Aim to Greatly Limit Legal, Regulated Sports Betting
One of the key trends in the gaming industry in the first quarter of 2026 has been increasing concerns about the perceived damage that has been created by aggressive marketing on the part of national sportsbook operators.
But for the most part, state legislators are supporting modest tweaks to the process. But in Ohio, Republican legislators recently introduced the most comprehensive bill in the U.S. around limiting wagering almost across the board.
The "Save Ohio Sports Act" would make the state the first to completely repeal its authorization of mobile sports betting.
In-game betting, high-risk high-reward multi-leg wagers known as “parlays,” individual player prop bets, the use of credit cards to fund accounts, and sports betting commercials during games all would be banned under this sweeping proposal. The maximum single wager also would be capped at just $100.
If the bill sounds a bit extreme to some, it has a likely supporter in fellow Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who in the fall of 2025 told The Associated Press that his biggest regret during his term in office was signing the sports betting bill into law.
“Look, we’ve always had gambling, we’re always going to have gambling,” DeWine said at the time.
“But just the power of these [sportsbook operators] and the deep, deep, deep pockets they have to advertise and do everything they can to get someone to place that bet is really different once you have legalization of them. Ohio shouldn’t have done it.”
DeWine later said that while he would like to ban sports betting entirely, he did not believe the votes in the statehouse are there for that result.
But now a number of legislators are trying to produce an outcome that for them might be said to be "the next-best thing."
Tax hike on sportsbooks was a hint of what may be to come
Ohio in its first year of sports betting in 2023 had a tax rate of just 10%, well below the national average. Just six months later, DeWine signed an amended bill into law to double the tax rate to 20%.
In early 2025, DeWine floated the idea - unsuccessful so far - of doubling the tax rate yet again, to 40% to make Ohio among the states with the highest tax rates.
While New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Delaware tax sports betting revenue at a 50% or 51% tax rate, that comes with a tradeoff of the sportsbook operator having a monopoly on such gambling.
New York, at 51%, has the highest tax rate in a competitive marketplace, followed by Illinois (40% for large operators) and Pennsylvania (36%).
DeWine's concerns about the pervasiveness of sports betting in his state have only grown since November 2025, when elite Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase and fellow pitcher Luis Ortiz were placed under investigation by Major League Baseball over questionable conduct regarding whether the pitchers deliberately threw pitches that would result in gambling partners winning sizable bets.
That scandal has led a number of states to cut back on such wagers, especially in terms of sportsbooks having "Over" and "Under" lines set on college athletes for the number of hits, points, yards, or goals the player might produce in a single game.
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Parlay ban would hit Ohio sportsbooks hard
The massive tax revenues being collected in large states are produced to a significant degree by sportsbooks very aggressively advertising multi-leg parlay wagers.
The more legs involved, the larger the payout can be won - and the less likely the bet will pay off, however.
While regulators in each state vary in terms of what financial information is provided, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement's breakdown of monthly sports betting revenue figures since 2018 consistently shows the sportsbook's lucrative parlay numbers.
The margins on major sports wagers in the state tend to hover around 5% or even a little lower, while it's not unusual for the industry to report margins up to 20% or more on parlays (in spite of the occasional large payout).
Ohio is a large enough state in terms of population and has a sports-minded culture, making it appealing to all major sportsbooks. But if the state does end parlay betting; doubles the tax rate again; and ends mobile sports betting, that could become too much of a disadvantage for the sportsbook operators to tolerate.
There are 11 casinos and racinos - racetracks with an additional casino gambling component - in Ohio. The four full-fledged casinos that were approved in 2009 are located in Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, and Toledo.
Banning mobile sportsbooks would leave central Ohio residents who prefer the full casino and sportsbook experience without a nearby legal, regulated sports betting option – potentially producing an unintended result of luring those gamblers onto illegal, but easily accessible, offshore sportsbooks.
