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 legislated sports wagering in his state.


With two Cleveland Guardians pitchers and an Ohio-born guard for the Miami Heat snared in separate betting-related criminal probes, the second-term Republican states he now "absolutely" 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 gambling," DeWine told The Associated Press last week. "But just the power of these business and the deep, deep, deep pockets they need to advertise and do everything they can to get somebody to put 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 ends up being more deep-rooted throughout much of the U.S. The wave of legalization over the last few years let loose an enormous industry focused around betting and, more recently, a wave of examinations and arrests tied to allegations of rigged games. It's a dynamic that DeWine states he does not believe legislators completely expected.


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


DeWine recently became a key gamer in the settlements in between Major League Baseball and its authorized video gaming operators that resulted in the capping of prop bets on individual pitches at $200 and excluding them from parlays. The offer was announced earlier this month, a day after Guardians pitchers Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase were indicted and accused of rigging pitches at the request of bettors. Both have pleaded not guilty.


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


"Gov. DeWine really did a huge 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 area," MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told press reporters last week.


And DeWine doesn't plan to stop there. Shortly after Ortiz and Clase were very first put on paid leave this summer, he announced he 'd be asking the commissioners and gamers' unions of all the significant U.S. sports leagues to ban prop bets - sometimes called micro-betting - like those implicated in the Guardians scandal. While that objective has not yet been accomplished - micro-betting is crucial to business technique in an industry with over $11 billion in profits in the U.S. this year - DeWine stated limitations put in place for baseball are a good first action.


"It needs to be holistic, it requires to be universal," he told the AP. "They ´ re just playing with fire. I mean, they are simply asking for a growing number of difficulty, their failure to resolve this."


DeWine's current sentiments mark a noteworthy position shift after he to - and after that did - sign a legalization law that was sweeping in scope. The legislation permitted grownups 21 and older to place sports bets online, at gambling establishments, at racinos and at stand-alone betting kiosks in bars, dining establishments and professional sports centers. Wagering was allowed under the expense on expert sports teams, motor sports, Olympic events, golf, tennis and even significant 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 transpiring in the state.


An AP examination that year discovered that gambling establishment operators, fruit machine makers, video gaming technology business, sports interests or their lobbyists donated nearly $1 million in 2021 and 2022 to the not-for-profit Republican Governors Association, which supported pro-DeWine committees through its campaign arm. Entities and people with ties to the market also contributed more than $22,000 directly to DeWine's project, according to campaign finance reports.


An evaluation of more current campaign filings finds that industry largesse has 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, Hard Rock, Underdog, Rush Street or Caesars have donated about $130,000 to Ohio state lawmakers in the previous three years, records show - about a 3rd of that directed to leading House and Senate leaders. Then-Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who was positioning as DeWine's most likely gubernatorial successor, had received about $9,000 from industry-connected entities and people before being designated to the U.S. Senate.


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


"I think that prop bets are a considerable part of sports wagering in the state of Ohio," Stewart informed cleveland.com in August. "It ´ s something that clearly a great deal of Ohioans have participated in and delight in, and I wear ´ t believe there ´ s something that we need to eliminate totally."


Amid such pushback, DeWine and others now see voluntary buy-in from leagues, players' unions and sportsbooks as a remarkable approach to pursuing betting constraints on a state-by-state basis, where the authority lies.


Matt Schuler, executive director of the Ohio Casino Control Commission, stated the baseball deal DeWine helped broker has actually revealed it can be done.


"He ´ s using the bully pulpit and he ´ s able to link with the best individuals because way," Schuler said of DeWine. "Nobody thought that everybody might get on the exact same page, today they did since everybody understands the danger. The bets are little, however the threat is big, therefore, having observed video gaming and controlled it for about 14 years, this is excellent."


DeWine stated his interest in sports gambling began nearly as soon as Ohio's law took result in 2023. Very rapidly, his office started getting reports that bettors were threatening members of the University of Dayton basketball group.


So he called 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 compose a letter asking for the elimination of collegiate prop bets from the list of legal wagers that sportsbooks operating in Ohio could put, which allowed DeWine to usher the modification through the casino commission.


After the Guardians case emerged this summer, DeWine approached Manfred with the exact same concept. 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 consent to a brand-new national rule.


"I would have chosen to have actually completely gotten rid of the micro-prop bets, however this is the area that he was able to settle on with them, and I was pleased with that," DeWine stated. "And so, I think that ´ s progress."


DeWine, who faces term limits next year, stated he would more than happy to sign a repeal of Ohio's sports wagering law at this moment, however he's specific there's insufficient support for that at the Ohio Statehouse.


"There's not the elect that. I can count," he stated. "I ´ m not always right, but I can practically guarantee you that they're not all set to do this."


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


DeWine, a passionate baseball fan, especially of his hometown Cincinnati Reds, said he thinks "these sports are having fun with dynamite here and the integrity of the sports is at stake."


"So, you attempt to do what you can do, and you try and alert individuals, and try to take action like we did with collegiate, and you try do something about it like what we ´ re making with baseball," he said. "But we ´ ve got to keep pressing these other sports to do it, too."


AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum added to this report.


FILE - Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, right, waits to give out checking out 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)