Ohio’s largest casinos may find themselves without sports books if the bill recently approved by the Buckeye State’s Senate is enacted as is.
The bill divides sports books into Type A or online books, Type B or brick-and-mortar books, and Type C kiosks permitted in establishments with liquor licenses, though offering a narrow spectrum of sports bets. Type B licenses are allocated to counties on a quota system, with the most populous counties given preference.
However, sports teams have first dibs on the licenses. For instance, Cuyahoga County, which would be allocated three Type B licenses, has two casinos. But it is also home to the Cleveland Browns, Indians, and Cavaliers; if all three opted for Type B licenses, the casinos would be left out in the cold.
This doesn’t sit with Jack Entertainment Senior Vice President for Governmental Affairs Daniel Reinhard. Saying his company could not support SB 176 as written (it passed in the state Senate 30-2), he told the Saturday Tradition, “It’s unfair to those businesses and it’s extremely unfair to those Ohio employees who staff all those buildings.” Reinhard’s company owns Jack Cleveland casino and Jack Thistledown racino in the Cleveland area.
Complications could also arise in the Cincinnati area, home to two casinos (one a Hard Rock-branded property) and three major-league franchises, including the Cincinnati Bengals and Cincinnati Reds. (PGA Tour golf courses and NASCAR tracks also count as franchises under the bill.) The smaller counties would not pose a problem as they have as many — or more — casinos and/or racinos as Type B licenses and no sports-franchise competitors
Eric Schippers, Reinhard’s opposite number at Penn National Gaming, told SportsHandle.com that he was “shocked and dismayed” by the legislation, adding, “The Senate is inexplicably handicapping this for the teams, the PGA, and the promoter of a stock-car race to get retail sports betting licenses, when the fact is having a retail sports book in the casinos/racinos will help boost incremental revenues from the higher taxed slot machines by as much as 25 percent based on our experience in other states.”
Penn owns two casinos and two racinos in Ohio, one of which, Hollywood Columbus, would be in competition with a Major League Soccer team for a license, as well as with the Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League and the PGA Memorial Tournament. “And there go the three licenses,” wrote SportsHandle columnist Jeff Edelstein.
State Sen. Niraj Antani pushed back at the casinos, telling Cincinnati.com that the sports teams are “longstanding Ohio businesses that … contribute greatly to the Ohio economy. The casinos ran a constitutional amendment, came in with out-of-state money, forced their way into the state of Ohio. So yes, there’s a preference in the bill for the businesses that operate in the free market.”
SB 176 provides for 25 Type A and 33 Type B licenses. Opponents hope to slow or amend it in the House.
