A new bill proposal awaiting assignment in the Ohio state legislature seeks to strike down the legalization of online sportsbooks in the name of consumer protection. Dubbed the “Save Ohio Sports Act,” the proposed legislation would also place unprecedented limits on state-sanctioned retail sports betting.
READ: Ohio House Bill 971 (the Save Ohio Sports Act, introduced in July 2026)
Although the chances of the bill getting passed and becoming law are perceived to be slim, current Governor Mike DeWine is supporting the initiative, saying that he “regrets” legalizing Ohio online sports betting in 2021. The state’s chief executive cites multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns, game integrity, and gambling addiction as reasons for repealing the law that allows internet sports betting within Ohio’s borders.
If passed as is, the Save Ohio Sports Act would limit retail sports bettors to a maximum of eight wagers per day, eliminate collegiate sports markets altogether, and cap individual bets at $100. The proposal also seeks to ban prop bets in the state.
The new Ohio proposal represents another blow to state-licensed sportsbooks that have recently been subjected to higher state taxes and unfavorable amendments. Last week, the state of North Carolina passed a budget that recognizes prediction markets as legal and aims to tax exchange transaction fees at a rate of 6%. By contrast, the budget increases the taxes on state-licensed sportsbook apps from 18% to 23% and denies those platforms the ability to deduct promotional dollars from taxable income.
Illinois recently shifted from a 15% flat tax on legal sportsbook apps to a graduated rate structure that can reach as high as 40%. The state also collects a new “per-wager fee” that ranges from $0.25 to $0.50. New Jersey and Louisiana have likewise increased taxes on mobile sportsbooks recently, placing further pressure on a gaming vertical that is notorious for its low “hold” percentage on non-parlay bets.
DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fanatics are all licensed in the states of Ohio and North Carolina as sportsbook apps. All three have prediction market platforms, too.
According to some sports betting analysts, the increased sportsbook app taxes in states like Louisiana, North Carolina, Illinois, and New Jersey are not high enough to justify a permanent shift out of sports betting and into prediction markets.
However, a statewide repeal of legalized online sports betting in Ohio is a different matter entirely, according to The Closing Line Substack author Dustin Gouker, who calls the notion of repealing online sports betting in the name of banning the activity altogether “crazy.” Gouker believes that issues related to addiction will continue to arise as the state’s residents move on to prediction markets or offshore sports betting platforms.
He also states in his July 7th commentary that an Ohio repeal of legal online sports betting will provoke an immediate reaction from several state-licensed sportsbooks. “All the sportsbooks with prediction markets (DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics) will 100% turn around and start offering sports event contracts in the state.”
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