Here’s The Latest On Sports Betting In Ohio

COLUMBUS, OH —With baseball closing in on the playoffs, the NFL season kicking off this weekend and the NBA season just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to talk about sports gambling in the United States.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on betting on sports games in May of 2018, 13 states across the nation now have legalized sports betting industries. Ohio isn't one of those states, but legislators are debating joining the fray.

“Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each State is free to act on its own,” the court wrote in its opinion. “Our job is to interpret the law Congress has enacted and decide whether it is consistent with the Constitution.”

Ohio has introduced legislation that would legalize sports gambling in the state. However, legislators are debating how the industry will be regulated, and what form gambling will take in the Buckeye State. Several neighboring states have already legalized sports gambling.

The sports blogging network SB Nation, has an interactive map of the United States that tracks all the news and legislation surrounded sports gambling. The map categorizes each state's level of sports gambling on one of four levels: legal, bill passed, bill introduced, or no bill.

Here are the states who have legalized sports gambling:

• Nevada
• New Jersey
• Delaware
• Mississippi
• West Virginia
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• New York
• Iowa
• Indiana

Six more states look particularly close to having legal sports betting, as Illinois, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Tennessee all put bills on file in the past few months that will likely legalize the practice in the coming months.

The U.S. states with no legislation at all on legalizing sports betting are:

• Idaho
• Utah
• Wyoming
• North Dakota
• Nebraska
• Wisconsin
• Florida