There are no income tax cuts in Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposed $87 billion, two-year state budget, and there’s the elimination of the state sales tax on baby products in it. But there’s also a tax hike buried in the 4,000+ page spending plan.
The budget doubles the tax on sports betting from 10% in law now to 20%, to be paid by casinos and teams running sportsbooks with mobile companies such as DraftKings and Barstool Sportsbook. And just slightly over the average of 19% that other states are levying, according to a report from Bloomberg Tax.
The revenue would go to schools for athletics and extracurricular activities, toward problem gambling and to administrative costs of overseeing sports betting.
That has included monitoring the ads of those sports gambling apps.
Sports gambling has been legal in Ohio for a little more than a month. But DraftKings, Penn Sports Interactive and Bet MGM are facing fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars for breaking state law with their ads suggesting risk-free betting or free bonuses, and for targeting people too young to gamble. They can ask for hearings before the Casino Control Commission to plead their cases.
