Double the levy once? Shame on you. But double the levy twice? Well, shame on me.
Ohio lawmakers said as much last week when they officially pulled another proposed doubling of the state’s tax rate for sportsbooks out of a budget bill.
Key insights
- Ohio House lawmakers removed a proposed tax hike for sportsbook operators from a budget bill.
- Sportsbook operators were already hit with a tax hike in Ohio in 2023, and are facing possible increases in other jurisdictions.
The Ohio House of Representatives voted 60-39 on Wednesday to pass an amended version of House Bill 96, sans sports betting tax hike.
When it was introduced in February, H.B. 96 included a proposal to double the tax rate for Ohio sports betting operators to 40% from 20%. That hike would have been in addition to the increase approved in 2023, which raised the levy on sportsbooks to 20% from 10%.
However, the version of H.B. 96 passed last week does not include the hike to 40%, which follows pushback from lawmakers and the legal sports betting industry.
Whether the increase reemerges during the budget process remains to be seen, but, for the moment, it’s out. The budget ball is now in the court of the Ohio Senate.
Winning streak
Still, the removal by the House is another win for Ohio sports betting operators like DraftKings and FanDuel. They and other Buckeye State operators also recently benefited from a decision by Maryland lawmakers to water down a proposed tax hike to 20% instead of 30%. Another proposed tax hike for online sportsbooks in New Jersey has taken flak as well.
Legal sports betting operators have become a popular target for state lawmakers looking for new tax revenue or seeking what they view as a more appropriate rate for the gambling industry. A significant bump in Illinois last year raised the specter of other significant markets, such as Ohio, following suit.
The industry made some scary noises on Wednesday about a proposed sports betting tax hike in Ohio, which some lawmakers seem critical of already:
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) March 5, 2025
Ohio Warned Sports Betting Tax Hike Will Also Hurt Bettors https://t.co/6CVslWMlpU @Covers
But Buckeye State lawmakers are thus far not buying what the governor’s office is selling.
The 2023 hike sought by Gov. Mike DeWine and approved by legislators was in response to missteps by operators following the launch of legal sports betting in Ohio earlier that year. This time around, the governor's proposed hike was to help with “supporting sports development and sports education.”
Half the tax money raised under the new rate would have gone to a new “sports facilities construction and sports education fund.”
The fund would have helped pay for building and renovating “major sports facilities and minor league sports facilities,” as well as support “youth sports education.”
You can take that hike and reconsider it
That proposal was made as the NFL's Cleveland Browns are looking to build a new stadium with financial help from the Ohio government.
But the plan didn’t cut it with House lawmakers, who had telegraphed their intentions to nix the tax hike. Instead, H.B. 96 now proposes the state issue as much as $600 million in bonds to help finance the Browns' new home.
"The proposal to increase the sports betting [tax rate] is to fund what I don't consider a worthy cause, which is basically using these dollars to subsidize multimillion-dollar sports owners for their professional sports facilities," Democratic Rep. Daniel Troy said in March. "That's not an issue that my constituents have brought to my attention."
Ohio lawmakers were also warned that another doubling of the sportsbook tax rate would be felt by bettors. Those potential consequences included chasing more operators out of the state after several already departed.
“A 300% increase in the tax will accelerate a tightening market and leave consumers with fewer choices,” Scott Ward, an attorney appearing on behalf of the Sports Betting Alliance, told the House’s Ways and Means Committee in March.
