Ohio Changes Sports Betting Bill To Comply With Wire Act

• OH HB 194 had its second hearing in the House Finance Committee.
• The meeting helped ensure sports betting would follow the Wire Act.
• Rules were also added to prevent money laundering.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A Ohio sports betting bill had its second hearing on Thursday in the House Finance Committee.

Ohio’s House Finance Committee gave OH HB 194 its second committee hearing. Two major changes to the sports betting bill happened during this committee. They changed the bill so that it would follow the federal law known as the Wire Act. They also added regulation that would help prevent money laundering.

Complying With The Wire Act

Regulations were set in place to ensure that all sports betting would happen in-state. Mobile sports betting is restricted to happen within state borders. To further implement this, sports betting servers will be in the state as well. This means that there is no room for interpretation that a bet crossed state lines.

Ohio lawmakers are also implementing language that would help prevent lawsuits because of the Wire Act. Words such as ‘mobile’ and ‘internet’ are now removed from the bill. Instead, language like ‘communications devices’ is used to allow for mobile wagering. Representative Dave Greenspan gives further insight into why they use that language.

“The reason we went with that language, versus ‘mobile’ and ‘online,’ is, once again, ‘devices,’ ‘personal devices,’ and ‘software’ are broad terms. We don’t know 5-10 years from now what the technology may be, what the delivery system of the product may look like,” said Greenspan.

Penalties For Money Laundering

Lawmakers added language that would help prevent money laundering in sports betting. This bill adds penalties for people who attempt to interfere with report submissions. Trying to do so will result in being charged with a fifth-degree felony. A fifth-degree felony is about 6-12 months in prison in Ohio and a fine up to $2,500.

After the first offense, doing so again will be a fourth-degree felony. That will be 6-18 months in prison and a fine up to $5,000. Greenspan said that the money laundering laws already existed in Ohio. The lawmakers wanted to include that language for sports betting.

OH HB 194 was first introduced in early April. The bill had its first committee hearing back on May 16. Now with this second hearing done on Thursday, things are starting to pick up momentum. Ohio has plenty of time to legalize sports betting because the legislative session is on for the rest of the year.

News tags: OH HB 194 | Ohio | Wire Act