Gov. Mike DeWine says he considers his signing of legislation legalizing sports gambling his biggest mistake as governor. “Any control that we can get over this, anything we can do, we should be doing,” DeWine said Wednesday.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told the editorial board for cleveland.com | The Plain Dealer on Wednesday that his "lead" mistake as governor was signing a bill to legalize sports gambling in Ohio. COLUMBUS, Ohio— Gov.
Mike DeWine says that when he’s asked by people what mistakes he has made during his seven years as Ohio’s governor, one answer above all else comes to mind. “People have asked me, ‘What mistakes did you make?’ And I’ll lead with signing a bill for sports gaming,” DeWine said Wednesday during a meeting with the editorial board for cleveland.com |The Plain Dealer. “It’s a huge problem among young males up to 45. It’s a huge problem,” he added. “And we have many of them addicted, many of them spending money that they do not have.” DeWine signed legislation in December 2021 that legalized sports gambling statewide starting in January 2023. Fueled by a massive ad campaign by sports gaming companies, Ohioans wagered $7.7 billion on sports in 2023, then But amid the popularity of sports gambling in Ohio, DeWine said the state of Ohio has spent several million dollars helping residents who have problems with betting on sports. “Frankly, when I signed the bill – I should’ve have, my fault, I take the blame – I didn’t count on the massive amount of advertising that these companies would do, first to get people to sign up for their app and to continue on," DeWine said. “They now have it here,” the governor added, holding up his cell phone. “They got it right here. They don’t have to go to a casino. They don’t have to go anyplace – they got it right here."After the initial reports about the Guardians pitchers, DeWine initially called for a complete statewide ban on proposition, or “prop,” bets. But after speaking with Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, DeWine said he was persuaded that the best tactic was to let MLB pro sports leagues set up their own restrictions nationwide.– including restricting betting on individual pitches and capping “microprop” wagers at $200 – was “not exactly where I wanted to end up.” “But that’s not a bad compromise,” he said, “because I think where you see most of the problem, the bets are more than $200.” Since then, DeWine has been pushing the National Football League and other pro sports leagues to take similar action. “The other leagues, I think, need to get with it. This is a ticking time bomb for these leagues,” the governor said. “There’s a reason that the most watched things on TV every year are sporting events. The reason they are is we don’t know the outcome, and we think it’s legitimate. ... If you start attacking that integrity and people thinking, ‘Maybe that pitch in the third inning was thrown because there was somebody who had a bet on it,’ the whole integrity of the sport goes away.”at legalizing other forms of online gambling and lottery games as a way to pay for a state income-tax cut.and some key legislators, they ended up paying for the income-tax cut by cobbling together a variety of spending cuts and halting various state tax exemptions.Jeremy Pelzer has worked in the Columbus bureau of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer since 2013. Prior to that, Pelzer worked for Gongwer News Service in Ohio and covered government and politics in Illinois,...
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