A bill has been introduced that would expand online gambling in Ohio from just sports betting to also include playing poker or casino games for money, as well as playing lottery games and betting on horse races on phones or laptops.
The bill from Sen. Nathan Manning (R-North Ridgeville) was introduced Tuesday and will be unveiled on Wednesday in the brand-new Senate Select Committee on Gaming. House Finance Chair Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) confirmed last week he's working on a bill to establish iGaming in Ohio with the goal of generating some additional revenue for the state.
Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) said iGaming and iLottery are being looked at as the budget process goes on.
“I think there's a different tone and tenor about some of these things than maybe there was ten years ago. I think a lot of times Ohioans want to have a little bit more choice as to how they spend their money and spend their recreational time. I think it's something we're going to talk about," McColley said. "The House put kind of open-ended aspirational language in the budget. We're having conversations with them as to what they actually meant by that. And so we'll see where we end up."
McColley's Republican counterpart in the House shares a similar view.
"In some sense I think as a state we've sort of turned the corner and said, we're going to raise money from gambling," said Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima). "And probably if you'd ask people 30 years ago, these were things that are absolutely taboo. But what we recognize, I think public officials and most of the public recognizes is, people want services and they don't want to pay taxes. And how do you solve that conundrum? One way is raise revenue in a different way. And one is through gambling."
The leader of the Senate's Democrats said the idea is something to talk about.
"Certainly other states have shown us that when they take the dollars and they're distributed to programs that ordinarily, are always underfunded, there's a helping there. I think it's important for us to look at," said Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood).
But she added: "What we absolutely have to do is continue to fund mental health programs and those programs that serve people, because there's always going to be people who suffer from addiction that will be affected by increasing the access to these kinds of things. So we can't have one without really thinking about the other."
A commission was set up in the current budget approved two years ago to look into iGaming and iLottery. In a report issued last July, three Republican lawmakers on the panel said other states that legalized iGaming or iLottery or both saw "significant increases to tax revenues generated with greater participation". But they added that any implementation of iGaming or iLottery must not come at a cost to Ohio’s existing brick-and-mortar casinos and racinos. The industry has had concerns about how internet gambling could affect traffic at its four casinos and seven racinos in Ohio.
