Three Republicans within the Ohio Home of Representatives say the state’s ban on school participant prop bets is unwarranted within the wake of student-athletes with the ability to revenue from their identify, picture, and likeness (NIL).
The DraftKings Sportsbook in Virginia presents participant prop odds on the variety of strikeouts every beginning pitcher for Friday’s Cleveland Guardians vs. Minnesota Twins matchup will throw. A number of Republicans in Ohio suppose the state’s ban on participant props involving school athletes is unjust. (Picture: DraftKings Sportsbook)
Final month, the Examine Fee on the Way forward for Gaming in Ohio offered its findings to the state legislature. The 11-person bipartisan group of lawmakers and state racing and gaming officers struggled to discover a consensus on whether or not to assist the authorization of on-line on line casino playing and web lottery video games.
Nevertheless, the three GOP lawmakers serving on the committee got here out in assist of extra playing choices being afforded to Buckeye State residents, together with on-line slots, desk video games, and lottery gross sales. Additionally they voiced their opposition to the Ohio On line casino Management Fee (OCCC) earlier this 12 months inserting a ban on participant prop bets involving collegiate athletes.
Unneeded Regulation
On the request of NCAA President Charlie Baker, OCCC Govt Director Matthew Schuler decided in February that requiring the state’s retail and on-line sportsbooks to take away school participant props was wanted to guard the integrity of faculty sports activities and scale back cases of participant harassment. Schuler cited that such participant props accounted for lower than 1.5% of the general cash wagered on sports activities final 12 months in Ohio.
Ohio Reps. Jay Edwards (R-Athens), Jeff LaRe (R-Violet), and Cindy Abrams (R-Hamilton) say the exclusion of such betting traces does little to guard school gamers and since student-athletes can now obtain NIL cash, they need to be handled equally to skilled athletes.
“Whereas we perceive the circumstances during which this choice was made, we imagine it’s one which was not wanted,” the Republican lawmakers wrote of their coverage suggestions.
With the present panorama of collegiate athletics and NIL, gamers are actually being paid to play (and carry out) in sure sports activities. That’s no completely different than every other skilled sport. Studies of harassment and potential threats are unacceptable at any stage of athletics. Such acts ought to be investigated and prosecuted accordingly,” the suggestion continued.
“However the response from the OCCC to easily ban prop-betting on particular person collegiate athletes appears to unravel the issue with out addressing the problem. We suggest that the OCCC’s coverage be rescinded and prop- betting on school athletes be restored,” they concluded.
Prop Bans
Most states prohibit their licensed sportsbook operators from accepting participant props on school athletes. Such props usually contain a guess primarily based on a single participant’s efficiency.
Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Washington, DC, are the one sports activities betting jurisdictions the place school participant props are absolutely allowed. Faculty participant props are additionally allowed in New Jersey, however odds involving gamers enrolled at state-based faculties are forbidden.
Together with Ohio, gaming regulators and/or lawmakers in Louisiana, Maryland, and Vermont this 12 months altered their sports activities betting guidelines to ban school participant props.
Baker, who signed Massachusetts’ sports activities betting invoice into regulation whereas governor of the state, says participant props in school sports activities are “enormously problematic.” The previous governor who grew to become head of the collegiate sports activities governing physique in March 2023 says school athletes “usually are surrounded by an enormous share of their classmates who guess on sports activities.”
