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

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - If Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine might reverse time, he would not have signed the law that legalized sports wagering 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 states he now "absolutely" is sorry for unleashing this unbridled new industry on Ohioans with his 2021 signature.


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


His comments show a reckoning that's unfolding across sports and politics as sports betting ends up being more ingrained across much of the U.S. The wave of legalization recently unleashed an enormous industry centered around betting and, more recently, a wave of investigations and arrests connected to allegations of rigged games. It's a dynamic that DeWine says he doesn't believe legislators totally prepared for.


"Ohio shouldn't have actually done it," he stated.


DeWine recently emerged as an essential gamer in the settlements between Major League Baseball and its authorized video gaming operators that led to the topping of prop bets on specific pitches at $200 and omitting them from parlays. The deal was announced earlier this month, a day after Guardians pitchers Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase were arraigned and accused of rigging pitches at the behest of . Both have pleaded not guilty.


FILE - Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brennaman, right, speaks to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, left, during "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, certainly, I can ´ t promote any of the other sports - in regards to type of advancing the need to do something in this area," MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told press reporters recently.


And DeWine doesn't prepare to stop there. Shortly after Ortiz and Clase were very first put on paid leave this summer, he revealed he 'd be asking the commissioners and players' unions of all the major U.S. sports leagues to ban prop bets - in some cases called micro-betting - like those implicated in the Guardians scandal. While that objective has actually not yet been achieved - micro-betting is important to business strategy in an industry with over $11 billion in income in the U.S. this year - DeWine stated limitations put in location for baseball are a great initial step.


"It needs to be holistic, it needs to be universal," he told the AP. "They ´ re just playing with fire. I suggest, they are just requesting a growing number of problem, their failure to resolve this."


DeWine's recent beliefs mark a significant position shift after he pledged to - and after that did - sign a legalization law that was sweeping in scope. The legislation permitted adults 21 and older to put sports bets online, at casinos, at racinos and at stand-alone wagering kiosks in bars, dining establishments and expert sports facilities. Wagering was allowed under the expense on expert sports groups, motor sports, Olympic events, golf, tennis and even significant college sports, consisting of Ohio State football.


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


An AP investigation that year discovered that casino operators, slot machine makers, video gaming innovation companies, sports interests or their lobbyists contributed almost $1 million in 2021 and 2022 to the nonprofit Republican Governors Association, which supported pro-DeWine committees through its project arm. Entities and people with ties to the industry likewise contributed more than $22,000 directly to DeWine's campaign, according to campaign finance reports.


A review of more current campaign filings finds that industry largesse has actually continued to flow to Ohio politicians 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 contributed about $130,000 to Ohio state lawmakers 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 positioning as DeWine's most likely gubernatorial successor, had gotten about $9,000 from industry-connected entities and people before being selected to the U.S. Senate.


At least one powerful state lawmaker, Republican House Finance Chairman Brian Stewart, had promised to present legislation safeguarding prop bets prior to expert baseball's crackdown.


"I think that prop bets are a substantial part of sports betting in the state of Ohio," Stewart informed cleveland.com in August. "It ´ s something that plainly a lot of Ohioans have actually taken part in and enjoy, and I put on ´ t believe there ´ s something that we must 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 gambling constraints on a state-by-state basis, where the authority lies.


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


"He ´ s utilizing the bully pulpit and he ´ s able to get in touch with the right people because method," Schuler said of DeWine. "Nobody thought that everyone might get on the exact same page, and now they did due to the fact that everybody understands the danger. The bets are little, but the risk is huge, therefore, having actually observed gaming and managed it for about 14 years, this is excellent."


DeWine stated his interest in sports gambling began almost as quickly as Ohio's law worked in 2023. Very rapidly, his workplace began getting reports that gamblers were threatening members of the University of Dayton basketball group.


So he called NCAA President Charlie Baker, whom he understood 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 elimination of collegiate prop bets from the list of legal wagers that sportsbooks operating in Ohio could put, which enabled DeWine to usher the change through the casino commission.


After the Guardians case emerged this summer, DeWine approached Manfred with the same concept. They had not both been governors, however DeWine did have one cache going in: his household's veteran ownership of North Carolina's Asheville Tourists. DeWine stated Manfred asked him to hold off on pushing unilateral action in Ohio, in hopes of getting the parties to concur to a brand-new nationwide rule.


"I would have chosen to have entirely eliminated the micro-prop bets, but this is the area that he had the ability to settle on with them, and I was pleased with that," DeWine said. "And so, I believe that ´ s progress."


DeWine, who deals with term limits next year, stated he would enjoy to sign a repeal of Ohio's sports betting law at this moment, however he's particular there's insufficient support for that at the Ohio Statehouse.


"There's not the choose that. I can count," he said. "I ´ m not constantly right, however I can pretty much ensure you that they're not prepared to do this."


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


DeWine, a devoted baseball fan, particularly of his home town Cincinnati Reds, stated he believes "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 attempt and alert people, and attempt to take action like we did with college, and you try do something about it like what we ´ re doing with baseball," he stated. "But we ´ ve got to keep pushing these other sports to do it, too."


AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum added to this report.


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