Organized crime and offshore casinos are about to get a huge in-kind contribution from the Ohio GOP. The Orwellian-slugged “Save Ohio Sports Act” would roll back sports wagering in the Buckeye State to the Dark Ages of gambling. Reps. Jonathan Newman (R) and Beth Lear (R) have coupled to produce this monstrous afterbirth. Right off the top, it would ban online sports betting. Period. No more. The overwhelming majority (more than 95%) of sports bets are placed online, so you can basically take a shovel to sports wagering in Ohio. After all, there are fewer and fewer Buckeye State retail books … and it’s not like DraftKings or FanDuel is going to open a walk-up book in Akron or Youngstown. Not gonna happen. If you can’t get to a casino to place that wager, you’re going to be shit out of luck, friend.
Indulging in shameless hyperbole, Newman asked, “It’s the trillion-dollar big gambling companies who win. How is this good for Ohio?” Well, there are no “trillion-dollar” gambling companies. Big Gaming isn’t THAT big. Sheesh! What else would Newman and Lear ban? Parlays, for one. Prop bets for another. Also in-game bets. College-sports wagers, too. Oh, and you can’t bet more than $100/day or place more than eight wagers. What a lot of paternalistic, nanny-state bullshit!
Newman and Lear would leave Ohioans with a very emaciated set of betting options. You know who will offer those forbidden bets? Illegal bookies, for one. Unlawful, offshore sites, for another. And let’s not forget prediction markets, with whom Lear and Newman are either in cahoots or are ignorant of. (We’re betting on ignorance.) Prediction markets, unlike regulated books, pay no state taxes, observe no state regulations nor offer any responsible-gambling protections. They’re essentially lawless actors, winked at by the federal government due to their ability to corrupt the system at the highest levels (see below).
The so-called “party of personal responsibilty” not only wants to micromanage your gambling, it would restrict companies’ ability to market to you. Lear/Newman (above) would nix sports betting ads in college stadiums and ANY sports betting ads during sporting events, where they logically belong. Individual freedom? Personal choice? First Amendment? Fuck that shit!
This right-wing suffocation of personal freedom needs to be stopped ASAP. If not, Gov. Mike DeWine (R) is sure to sign it into law. After all, he’s been DeWhining to everyone who will listen (and a few who won’t) that legalizing sports wagering was The Worst Mistake Of My Life. It doesn’t help that the OSB industry has mounted an, at best, wan response to this GOP push. It’s already lying down for a move that would ban the use of credit cards when placing wagers, invasive Big State crap if ever we saw it. Big Gaming is flunking the Ohio test by taking it too lightly. Hell, we couldn’t even get American Gaming Association prexy Bill Miller to acknowledge the obvious backlash in progress. By the time the industry wakes up it may be too late. Let’s hope not.
It’s not just Republicans. Some prominent Democrats have sold their souls to prediction markets. Former Biden administration Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar is now penning amicus briefs on behalf of the scummy Coalition for Prediction Markets. A big wheel in that coalition, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal is exposing himself as a prize hypocrite. After the 2024 election, Grewel huffed that Coinbase would be blacklisting former Biden employees. Prated Grewal, he was punishing the “assumption by many government attorneys that they are free and clear to do whatever they want while in office without any consequences once they leave.” Grewal, meet Prelogar and prepare to eat your own words.
Other ex-Biden officials now doing Satan’s, er, Kalshi‘s bidding with regard to enabling event contracts include Sean Patrick Maloney, breaking an explicit promise he made not to cash in on his government connections with regard to crypto companies. Curtis Doster, Stephanie Cutter, John Bivona … more Biden appointees in a hurry to sell out to the highest bidder. Soulless former Solicitor General Neal Katyal (apologist for child slavery, below), an Obama appointee, is now carrying water for Kalshi. As one conservative organ puts it, “In other words, the one group of Democratic officials not cozying up to Kalshi—former financial regulators—are the only ones who actually understand whether Kalshi is violating any laws.” Well said.
Returning to Prelogar, her “masterpiece” argument (per Grewal) is bullshit. She whines that it would be burdensome to subject event contracts to 50 sets of state regulations. Funny, but that’s how the gambling industry in the United States functions … and functions very well. Even Big Gaming is happy with the status quo (or says it is). As The American Prospect tartly opines, Prelogar is “happy to lend her prodigious skills to nonsensical claims by wannabe card sharks.” Regardless of party label, a streetwalker is a whore by any other name.
Is nothing sacred? A betting controversy has been vomited forth by the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. It seems the Fourth of July staple was the scene of some organizational tampering with the outcome. Husband-and-wife gluttons Nick Wehry and Miki Sudo had their scores revised upward after the fact. Apparent betting winners became losers. It does not help that Wehry was accused of cheating two years ago. The fault lies not with ESPN, which broadcast the result, but something called Major League Eating, which runs the event. We’d rather not get into the nauseating details but suffice it to say we are left with a serious urge to toss our cookies.
Getting back to Bill Miller, our interview with the American Gaming Association CEO is now online for your perusal. We didn’t hesitate to put some tough questions to him and got some lively answers. We also sat down with Bally’s Chicago General Manager Ryan Coppola, who’s got a challenge ahead of him but is quick to accentuate the positive. Indeed, if Bally’s Chicago triumphs, it will change many perceptions of Bally’s Corp. … for the better.
I want prison time for C-suite prediction markets folk just like we got in the online poker industry. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander — and online poker is a player banked game that wasn’t infringing on the licenses and tax-generating ability of brick and mortar casinos.