DeWine Moves Against Prediction-Market Sports Bets
The governor says the state will sue companies such as Polymarket, Robinhood and Kalshi that offer sports wagers Ohio regulators call illegal gambling.
Gov. Mike DeWine says Ohio is going after online "prediction market" companies that let customers bet on sports outside the state's regulated gambling system, and that lawsuits are coming.
"This is pure and simple gambling, and they are trying to get around any regulations," DeWine said, according to the Statehouse News Bureau's Oct. 19 report.
The companies named in that report are Polymarket, Robinhood and Kalshi. The Statehouse News Bureau reported they offer bets on one-off actions athletes take during games, which it said are illegal in Ohio.
"We have some regulations over gambling. Maybe not enough. But we have some," DeWine told reporters, according to the bureau. "And these people are trying to get around it, and they are laughing at everybody."
Letters to 10 companies
The Ohio Casino Control Commission has sent cease-and-desist letters to many of the companies and threatened further action, the Statehouse News Bureau reported.
Covers.com reported Oct. 5 that DeWine and commission Chair Thomas Stickrath sent notices dated Oct. 2 to 10 operators offering sports event contracts: Polymarket, Novig, Underdog, Coinbase, ProphetX, Robinhood, Gemini Titan, WeBull, Plus500 and MooMoo Financial. The companies had until Oct. 16 to comply, according to Covers.
The commission's letter called the offerings unlicensed "gaming and bookmaking," which Covers said the commission describes as a felony under state law. "The ultimate result is money being won or lost based on the outcome of a game or a team or player's performance," the letter said, as quoted by Covers. If the companies do not comply, the commission may pursue "all legal remedies and actions," and penalties could include civil fines "equal to the money or value of property" the operators obtained from the contracts, Covers reported.
Kalshi did not receive a letter, according to Covers, which noted that the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled against the company in its Ohio lawsuit. The Statehouse News Bureau reported that a federal court recently ruled Kalshi must follow state law. Kalshi argues it operates under federal law, not state law, and the ruling is being appealed, the bureau reported.
Lawsuits next
DeWine said Ohio's attorney general will take the companies to court. "The law is very clear. The court decisions have been very clear," DeWine said, according to the Statehouse News Bureau. "These are not self-executing. You have to actually go out and file these suits, and that's what we are going to do."
In earlier remarks quoted by Covers, DeWine said the companies "don't want to be regulated by the state. And we think that's wrong," adding, "We think that they should have to abide by the same rules that everybody else has to abide by."
Two Democratic-sponsored bills in the Ohio General Assembly would go further, according to the Statehouse News Bureau. Senate Bill 479 would ban election-related bets on prediction market platforms. Senate Bill 430 would make sporting event contracts a form of sports gambling regulated and taxed by the state. Neither bill has gained traction, the bureau reported.