Ohio Governor Mike DeWine now regrets signing the 2021 law that legalized sports betting in his state, saying he “absolutely” wishes he could take it back.
The second-term Republican’s change of heart comes after recent gambling scandals involving two Cleveland Guardians pitchers and an Ohio-born Miami Heat player, prompting a broader reckoning about sports betting’s rapid expansion across America.
“Look, we’ve always had gambling, we’re always 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 have to advertise and do everything they can to get someone to place that bet is really different once you have legalization of them.”
His stark admission—”Ohio shouldn’t have done it”—reflects growing concerns about an industry that generated over $11 billion in U.S. revenue this year.
DeWine recently helped broker a deal between Major League Baseball and gaming operators to cap prop bets on individual pitches at $200. Prop bets, short for proposition bets, are wagers on specific outcomes within a game that are not directly tied to the final score or overall game result, such as a player’s total points scored or whether a team will score first.
The agreement came one day after Guardians pitchers Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase were indicted for allegedly rigging pitches at gamblers’ behest. Both players have pleaded not guilty.
“Gov. DeWine really did a huge service, I think — to us, certainly, I can’t speak for any of the other sports — in terms of kind of bringing forward the need to do something in this area,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters last week.
DeWine wants all major sports leagues to ban prop bets entirely.
“It needs to be holistic, it needs to be universal,” he told AP. “They’re just playing with fire. I mean, they are just asking for more and more trouble, their failure to address this.”
The gambling industry invested heavily in Ohio before legalization. Casino operators, gaming companies, and their lobbyists donated nearly $1 million to the Republican Governors Association supporting pro-DeWine committees in 2021-2022.
Industry-connected entities also contributed more than $22,000 directly to DeWine’s campaign.
Since then, gambling interests have donated about $130,000 to Ohio state legislators over three years. About one-third went to top House and Senate leaders.
DeWine’s concerns began almost immediately after Ohio’s law took effect in 2023. His office received reports of gamblers threatening University of Dayton basketball players.
He contacted NCAA President Charlie Baker, who shared his worries. DeWine successfully pushed to remove collegiate prop bets from Ohio’s legal wagering options.
After the Guardians scandal emerged this summer, DeWine approached Manfred with similar concerns. Though he preferred eliminating micro-prop bets completely, DeWine called the MLB agreement “progress.”
The governor, who faces term limits next year, would sign a repeal of Ohio’s sports betting law. But he acknowledges political reality.
“There’s not the votes for that. I can count,” he said, per AP. “I’m not always right, but I can pretty much guarantee you that they’re not ready to do this.”
Instead, DeWine plans to keep pressing other sports leagues for restrictions. An avid Cincinnati Reds fan, he believes “these sports are playing with dynamite here and the integrity of the sports is at stake.”
“So, you try to do what you can do, and you try and warn people, and try to take action like we did with collegiate, and you try take action like what we’re doing with baseball,” he said, AP reported. “But we’ve got to keep pushing these other sports to do it, too.”
Ohio state law allows licensed and regulated casino gambling, the state lottery, charitable games such as bingo and raffles, and casino-themed events for non-profit organizations, in addition to sports wagering. According to a study by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the number of Ohioans who self-identified as “problem gamblers” or gamblers with a severe addiction increased to over 250,000 after legalization, as The Dallas Express reported.
That same study estimated that if gambling were to become legal in Texas, the number of problem gamblers could reach around 600,000. In the past, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has expressed support for legalizing online sports betting and resort-style casino gambling. Pro-gambling PACs have doled out hundreds of thousands of dollars to various political campaigns in Texas in recent years, but thus far, gambling legislation has failed to advance in the Texas House and Senate, The Texas Scorecard reported.
