Ohio became the 18th state to legalize and regulate daily fantasy sports (DFS) Friday as Governor John Kasich signed House Bill 132 into law. The Ohio Casino Control Commission will oversee the industry’s regulation.
The bill, which exempts daily fantasy sports from the state’s gambling laws, was supported by a good portion of Ohio’s professional sports teams – the Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, and Columbus Crew – according to the Dayton Daily News. No word on whether or not the Cleveland Browns or Cincinnati Bengals are against the bill or simply didn’t weigh in. If I were a betting man (pun intended), I would say they are just fine with it. Both NFL teams have sponsorship deals with FanDuel, the second leading site in daily fantasy sports after DraftKings. The NFL, despite publicly trying to maintain distance from sports betting and to a lesser extent daily fantasy sports, knows that a massive portion of its audience is interested because they have something riding on the games, whether it is money or just pride.
HB 132 sets the maximum annual licensing fee at $10,000 and licenses are to be valid for no more than three years. Interestingly, there will be no separate DFS tax, which is obviously great for the sites. It could be a positive for players, too, as extra taxes are often passed on the customers.
The final regulations are up to the Casino Control Commission, but the bill lays out what sorts of regulations could and should be put in place:
• Prohibiting play by people younger than 18-years old
• Allowing players to self-ban
• Keeping operating funds separate from player funds AND having more money on reserve than the total player funds on deposit
• “Beginner” and “Experienced” player features
• Maximum entries per contest
The bill’s primary sponsor is State Representative Jonathan Dever (R – District 28). At the concurrence hearing (essentially the final hearing for the bill), he said something that lawmakers should really take note of when thinking about online poker (thank you to Online Poker Report for the quote):
What we’re really trying to do here is to allow the 1.9 million Ohioans that are currently engaging in fantasy sports a path to continue to do what they’re doing. But protect the money they’re putting in there. And also [provide] some consumer protections, some controls on the industry itself.
Logic! Shocking, I know. Allow adults to partake in entertainment with their own money while putting consumer protections in place!
The DFS bill was introduced in March and referred to the House Government Accountability and Oversight Committee. It passed that committee by a unanimous vote in May and then easily passed the entire House by an 82 to 15 vote. In late November, it cleared the Senate Finance Committee by an 11 to 1 vote and then the Senate as a whole, 25 to 4. It then went back to the House, which voted for it three weeks ago, 92 to 3.
