State Congress has agreed, measure will likely to go into effect in June 2021

By Curt Berry, Staff Writer

So, can we gamble on our beloved sports teams, place our five team college football parlays, and take the Bengals against the spread? We can probably find a way, but can we do it legally in Ohio?

 Let me fill you in on what’s new with Ohio sports betting. For starters, both sides of state Congress have agreed to legalize sports gambling. 

The process to legalize sports gambling is taking awhile because there are still parts of the bill that congress has yet to look over, and with the election going on, they haven’t had a chance to do so. 

After the election, however, they will be able to finish it and then pass the bill. It takes roughly six months for the bill to get into action, so it should be effective by June of 2021. 

Once June comes around, all the major gambling operations will come to town, such as DraftKings and FanDuel. Gamblers will need to use Wi-Fi and a geolocation that shows they are in Ohio to be able to create an account with these two websites. 

You don’t like online sports gambling? Head to the casino, and they should be ready to take your money. 

Once this is legalized, you should be able to gamble on sports at every casino in Ohio. 

As much as the state of Ohio loves seeing you happy and winning money, they will need a cut of this too. 

Ohio Casino Control Commission will oversee all sports betting and will charge the following: A 8% tax rate, a $100,000 license at casinos and race tracks, a $10,000 management fee and a $1,000 renewal fee. 

The two other major sportsbooks coming to Ohio when betting is legalized are BetMGM and PointsBet. 

BetMGM is the online sportsbook partner of the MGM casino. This sportsbook has a history of being the first in line to be in operation once sports gambling is legalized in various states.

 You should also expect to see MGM at the physical casinos itself.

The sportsbook has great promotions, so be sure to read up on those when it is legalized. The one I’m most excited for, however, is PointsBet. 

PointsBet has all of your spreads, parlays, moneylines, futures, etc… but they also have-wait for it-points betting. 

This means you can gamble on a spread, and depending on how many points you win by, you get more money.

 For example, if you had the Bengals at +13 but they end up losing by three, you get more money because the Bengals covered the spread by 10 more points than they had to. 

However, if they end up losing by 30, you lose more money than what you originally put in. It’s a crazy concept, I know, but I love it, and it’s a fun way to bet. 

So we have a couple months before this train really gets rolling in Ohio.

However, it sounds like it will take off faster than Authentic did out of the gates when he won the 2020 Kentucky Derby in September,  which definitely made everybody who bet the 8-1 odds happy.