Sports betting comes to Ohio

Starting Sunday, sports betting will be legal in Ohio. The state's House Bill 29 authorized the Casino Control Commission to issue licenses for online sportsbooks, in-person betting at stadiums and casinos and sports gambling kiosks in bars, bowling alleys and other businesses. Local kiosk will not be available for a few more weeks.

Starting Sunday, sports gambling will be legal in Ohio. Licensed proprietors can start taking bets on Sunday. Local kiosks will not be available for a few more weeks.  "There's a lot of people that are very, very excited," said Dianna Cope Steinbrunner, owner of Hole in the Wall in Fort Recovery.

Sports gaming kiosks will be available in four locations in Mercer and Auglaize counties. They will offer sports gaming through the same terminals they use for Ohio Lottery and Keno. Intralot's kiosk is expected to be ready for sports gambling in mid-January. Pla-Mor Lanes owner Rick Hartings signed up at the first opportunity. Brian Alig, owner of Speedway L lanes, believes sports betting will most popular with bowlers between games. The kioskes will accept basic bets of a few hundred dollars on any professional or college sport. The apps will use Sportsbet Ohio and Gold Rush Gaming will have its own app.

The Hall of Fame Village at the Pro Football Hall in Canton has a license to offer sports betting. The Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Reds, and Cleveland Cavaliers have been licensed to do so. NCAA does not support sports gambling. The NCAA works with a betting integrity service to flag suspicious trends. Since a 2018 Supreme Court decision opened the door for sports bets, there have not been any documented attempts to fix NCAA games. It's mostly detected through regulated sportsbooks.   Suspicious betting activity or attempts of fixing games have largely been detected in regulated sportbooks, according to Casey Clark, senior vice president for the American Gaming Association.