Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine Signed A Law Legalizing Sports Betting. He

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - If Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine could reverse time, he would not have signed the law that legalized sports betting in his state.


With 2 Cleveland Guardians pitchers and an Ohio-born guard for the Miami Heat snared in separate betting-related criminal probes, the second-term Republican says he now "definitely" is sorry for unleashing this unbridled brand-new market on Ohioans with his 2021 signature.


"Look, we ´ ve always had gambling, we ´ re always going to have gaming," DeWine informed The Associated Press last week. "But simply the power of these companies and the deep, deep, deep pockets they have to promote and do everything they can to get somebody to position that bet is actually various once you have legalization of them."


His remarks show a numeration that's unfolding across sports and politics as sports wagering becomes more deep-rooted across much of the U.S. The wave of legalization in current years let loose an enormous industry focused around betting and, more just recently, a wave of examinations and arrests tied to accusations of rigged video games. It's a vibrant that DeWine says he doesn't think lawmakers completely anticipated.


"Ohio should not have done it," he stated.


DeWine just recently became a key player in the settlements in between Big league Baseball and its authorized video gaming operators that led to the capping of prop bets on specific pitches at $200 and omitting them from parlays. The deal was revealed previously this month, a day after Guardians pitchers Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase were indicted and accused of rigging pitches at the behest of gamblers. Both have pleaded innocent.


FILE - Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brennaman, right, speaks to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, left, throughout "Marty Brennaman Day" prior to a baseball game between the New York Mets and the Cincinnati Reds, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean, File)


"Gov. DeWine truly did a substantial service, I believe - to us, certainly, I can ´ t promote any of the other sports - in regards to sort of bringing forward the need to do something in this location," MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told press reporters recently.


And DeWine does not prepare to stop there. Shortly after Ortiz and Clase were very first put on paid leave this summertime, he revealed he 'd be asking the commissioners and of all the major U.S. sports leagues to prohibit prop bets - in some cases called micro-betting - like those linked in the Guardians scandal. While that objective has actually not yet been attained - micro-betting is important to business technique in a market with over $11 billion in income in the U.S. this year - DeWine stated limits put in place for baseball are a good very first step.


"It needs to be holistic, it needs to be universal," he told the AP. "They ´ re simply playing with fire. I suggest, they are simply asking for more and more difficulty, their failure to address this."


DeWine's recent beliefs mark a notable position shift after he promised to - and then did - sign a legalization law that was sweeping in scope. The legislation enabled adults 21 and older to put sports bets online, at casinos, at racinos and at stand-alone wagering kiosks in bars, restaurants and expert sports facilities. Wagering was allowed under the costs on professional sports groups, automobile racing, Olympic occasions, golf, tennis and even major college sports, including Ohio State football.


It was clear in the run-up to DeWine ´ s re-election in 2022 that the betting market was extremely interested in what was taking place in the state.


An AP investigation that year discovered that gambling establishment operators, slots makers, video gaming innovation business, sports interests or their lobbyists donated nearly $1 million in 2021 and 2022 to the nonprofit Republican Governors Association, which supported pro-DeWine committees through its campaign arm. Entities and people with ties to the industry likewise contributed more than $22,000 straight to DeWine's campaign, according to project financing reports.


A review of more recent project filings discovers that market largesse has actually continued to stream to Ohio politicians with sway over video gaming's future.


Lobbyists and a PAC with ties to Jack Casino, DraftKings, FanDuel, MGM, Gamewise, Acid Rock, Underdog, Rush Street or Caesars have contributed about $130,000 to Ohio state legislators in the previous 3 years, records show - about a 3rd of that directed to top House and Senate leaders. Then-Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who was positioning as DeWine's likely gubernatorial follower, had received about $9,000 from industry-connected entities and people before being appointed to the U.S. Senate.


At least one effective state legislator, Republican House Finance Chairman Brian Stewart, had promised to introduce legislation securing prop bets prior to expert baseball's crackdown.


"I believe that prop bets are a considerable part of sports betting in the state of Ohio," Stewart informed cleveland.com in August. "It ´ s something that clearly a lot of Ohioans have actually taken part in and enjoy, and I wear ´ t think there ´ s something that we must remove totally."


Amid such pushback, DeWine and others now see voluntary buy-in from leagues, players' unions and sportsbooks as an exceptional method to pursuing gambling restrictions on a state-by-state basis, where the authority lies.


Matt Schuler, executive director of the Ohio Casino Control Commission, said the baseball offer DeWine helped broker has actually shown it can be done.


"He ´ s using the bully pulpit and he ´ s able to link with the right people in that way," Schuler stated of DeWine. "No one believed that everybody might get on the very same page, however now they did due to the fact that everyone recognizes the threat. The bets are small, but the risk is huge, and so, having observed video gaming and managed it for about 14 years, this is excellent."


DeWine stated his interest in sports betting began almost as soon as Ohio's law took impact in 2023. Very rapidly, his workplace started receiving reports that gamblers were threatening members of the University of Dayton basketball group.


So he got in touch with NCAA President Charlie Baker, whom he knew from Baker's time as guv of Massachusetts, and discovered that he shared DeWine's concern. He got Baker to write a letter asking for the elimination of college prop bets from the list of legal wagers that sportsbooks operating in Ohio might position, which permitted DeWine to usher the modification through the casino commission.


After the Guardians case emerged this summer, DeWine approached Manfred with the exact same idea. They had not both been guvs, but DeWine did have one cache entering: his household's long-time ownership of North Carolina's Asheville Tourists. DeWine said Manfred asked him to hold off on pressing unilateral action in Ohio, in hopes of getting the parties to accept a new national guideline.


"I would have preferred to have actually entirely eliminated the micro-prop bets, however this is the location that he had the ability to pick with them, and I was pleased with that," DeWine said. "Therefore, I think that ´ s progress."


DeWine, who faces term limits next year, stated he would be happy to sign a repeal of Ohio's sports wagering law at this point, but he's specific there's insufficient assistance for that at the Ohio Statehouse.


"There's not the choose that. I can count," he said. "I ´ m not always right, however I can practically ensure you that they're not ready to do this."


Instead, he'll continue to make his case in other methods.


DeWine, a devoted baseball fan, particularly of his home town Cincinnati Reds, stated he thinks "these sports are playing with dynamite here and the integrity of the sports is at stake."


"So, you try to do what you can do, and you try and alert people, and try to act like we finished with college, and you attempt act like what we ´ re finishing with baseball," he stated. "But we ´ ve got to keep pressing these other sports to do it, too."


AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.


FILE - Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, right, waits to hand out reading certificates to kids before a Cleveland Guardians baseball video game versus the Minnesota Twins in Cleveland, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Phil Long, File)