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

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - If Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine could turn back time, he would not have actually 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 different betting-related criminal probes, the second-term Republican states he now "definitely" regrets unleashing this unchecked new market on Ohioans with his 2021 signature.


"Look, we ´ ve always had gambling, we ´ re constantly going to have gambling," DeWine told The Associated Press last week. "But just the power of these companies and the deep, deep, deep pockets they need to market and do whatever they can to get someone to place that bet is truly various once you have legalization of them."


His remarks show a numeration that's unfolding throughout sports and politics as sports betting ends up being more deep-rooted across much of the U.S. The wave of legalization over the last few years unleashed an enormous market centered around wagering and, more recently, a wave of investigations and arrests tied to claims of rigged games. It's a dynamic that DeWine says he does not think legislators totally anticipated.


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


DeWine recently became a crucial player in the negotiations in between Big league Baseball and its licensed video gaming operators that led to the capping of prop bets on individual pitches at $200 and omitting them from parlays. The offer was revealed previously this month, a day after Guardians pitchers Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase were arraigned and implicated of rigging pitches at the behest of bettors. Both have pleaded not guilty.


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


"Gov. DeWine actually did a big service, I believe - to us, definitely, I can ´ t promote any of the other sports - in terms of sort of advancing the requirement to do something in this location," MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred informed press reporters last week.


And DeWine doesn't 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 gamers' unions of all the significant U.S. sports leagues to ban prop bets - often called micro-betting - like those linked in the Guardians scandal. While that objective has not yet been achieved - micro-betting is vital to the organization strategy in a market with over $11 billion in revenue in the U.S. this year - DeWine stated limitations put in place for baseball are a great first action.


"It needs to be holistic, it requires to be universal," he informed the AP. "They ´ re simply playing with fire. I suggest, they are just requesting more and more problem, their failure to address this."


DeWine's recent beliefs mark a noteworthy position shift after he pledged to - and then did - sign a legalization law that was sweeping in scope. The legislation enabled grownups 21 and older to place sports bets online, at casinos, at racinos and at stand-alone betting kiosks in bars, restaurants and expert sports facilities. Wagering was allowed under the bill on professional sports teams, automobile racing, Olympic events, golf, tennis and even significant sports, consisting of Ohio State football.


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


An AP investigation that year found that gambling establishment operators, slots makers, 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 individuals with ties to the industry likewise donated more than $22,000 straight to DeWine's campaign, according to campaign financing reports.


An evaluation of more current project filings discovers that market largesse has continued to stream to Ohio political leaders with sway over gaming's future.


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


A minimum of one effective state lawmaker, Republican House Finance Chairman Brian Stewart, had promised to present legislation protecting prop bets prior to expert baseball's crackdown.


"I believe that prop bets are a substantial 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 taken part in and take pleasure in, and I put on ´ t believe there ´ s something that we should remove totally."


Amid such pushback, DeWine and others now view voluntary buy-in from leagues, players' unions and sportsbooks as an exceptional approach to pursuing gambling restrictions 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 connect with the ideal individuals in that method," Schuler stated of DeWine. "Nobody thought that everyone could get on the same page, but now they did since everybody understands the risk. The bets are little, but the threat is big, and so, having actually observed video gaming and managed it for about 14 years, this is outstanding."


DeWine said his worry about sports gambling started almost as quickly as Ohio's law took result in 2023. Very quickly, his office started receiving reports that bettors were threatening members of the University of Dayton basketball team.


So he contacted NCAA President Charlie Baker, whom he knew from Baker's time as governor of Massachusetts, and discovered that he shared DeWine's issue. He got Baker to compose a letter requesting the removal of college prop bets from the list of legal wagers that sportsbooks operating in Ohio could put, which enabled DeWine to usher the modification through the gambling establishment commission.


After the Guardians case emerged this summer, DeWine approached Manfred with the same concept. They hadn't both been governors, but DeWine did have one cache going in: his family's veteran ownership of North Carolina's Asheville Tourists. DeWine stated Manfred asked him to hold back on pressing unilateral action in Ohio, in hopes of getting the parties to concur to a new national guideline.


"I would have chosen to have entirely gotten rid of the micro-prop bets, however this is the area that he had the ability to choose with them, and I was pleased with that," DeWine said. "Therefore, I believe that ´ s development."


DeWine, who deals with term limitations next year, said he would be pleased to sign a repeal of Ohio's sports betting law at this moment, however he's certain there's insufficient support for that at the Ohio Statehouse.


"There's not the elect that. I can count," he stated. "I ´ m not constantly right, however I can quite much ensure you that they're not all set to do this."


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


DeWine, a devoted baseball fan, especially of his hometown Cincinnati Reds, stated he thinks "these sports are playing with dynamite here and the stability of the sports is at stake."


"So, you attempt to do what you can do, and you try and alert people, and attempt to take action like we did with college, and you attempt act like what we ´ re doing with baseball," he stated. "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 hand out reading certificates to children before a Cleveland Guardians baseball game versus the Minnesota Twins in Cleveland, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Phil Long, File)