This week, the Supreme Court struck down a 25-year-old law, barring gambling on sports, and now the door is open for states to decide what comes next.
It was a 6 to 3 Supreme Court decision to repeal the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. A law that prohibited state authorized sports gambling, with the exception of Nevada. Now with the federal law out of the way, the decision to allow gambling on sports is on a state by state basis.
New Jersey led the charge in 2012 when voters passed a law allowing sports betting. Now with the recent federal decision, New Jersey is scheduled to have their first sports book up and running on Memorial Day.
For Ohio, a couple of state lawmakers said there have been no talks in Columbus on whether sports betting will become legal. Ohio's constitution only allows gambling in the form of the lottery, charity bingo, and the casinos already established. It would take an amendment to the state constitution to legalize this. State Representative Bob Cupp said the quickest way would be the same way casinos were introduced.
"I think the concern is that special interest will come in to try to get a particular advantage so they can scoop up the funds from it. so there is an interest in developing a bill that's going to regulate it. It's going to make sure the public gets some benefit out of the money that's collected and put it to a good cause," said Cup.
State Senator Matt Huffman agrees states should control these sorts of issues but he is not a proponent of seeing this new legislation.
"Nobody's really that good at it anyway, so it usually comes out pretty even. But if there are folks who are professionals in the gambling business, their job isn't to provide entertainment there job is to separate you from your money. I think that's why it's in the constitution and I certainly wouldn't favor any change to that," said Huffman.
Cupp did say it's possible to see something on the November Ballot but it's very unlikely. He said there are better odds at seeing something on the ballot next year.
