COLUMBUS — Two leading family values voices are at odds with House Bill 194 and its companion bill in the Senate (S.B. 111) which legalize online sports gambling. According to Aaron Baer of Citizens for Community Values, there are powerful special interests pushing these bills.
“The casino industry knows this legislation provides their industry more avenues to exploit money from the poor by enticing the impoverished to play games that are statistically stacked against them,” says Baer.
The legislation came up for debate after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 ruled the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act as unconstitutional. The federal law had limited sports betting to Nevada for more than 25 years. The ruling now leaves it up to states to decide whether to allow their residents to bet on sports.
Barry Sheets with Principled Policy, believes the Supreme Court has opened up the flood gates to expanded gambling across the country.
“To make matters worse, these proposed bills allow for gambling on mobile devices. This will create a whole new class of gambling addicts. These bills ignore the euphoric similarity between addictive gambling behavior and the addiction to opioids- both repeatedly pursue a rewarding outcome and endorphins are released.”
According to Sheets, the State of New Jersey recently legalized sports gambling and at least one gambling counseling hotline is seeing a 22 percent increase in calls.
“Sports gambling is not a safe bet for families and communities,” says Sheets.
Aaron Baer believes the state-run program will profit off those who can least afford it.
“The majority of lottery tickets are sold in impoverished neighborhoods, so online sports gambling will lure the poorest of Ohio citizens to fund rich schools. In essence, it is a reverse Robin Hood. There is no question sports wagering will also undermine the integrity of sports. No one can deny that corrupt match fixing in tennis has occurred. And we cannot forget that this year marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the “Black Sox Scandal” when Major League Baseball players were bribed by gamblers to throw the World Series.”
Aaron Baer
Citizens for Community Values
“The majority of lottery tickets are sold in impoverished neighborhoods, so online sports gambling will lure the poorest of Ohio citizens to fund rich schools. In essence, it is a reverse Robin Hood. There is no question sports wagering will also undermine the integrity of sports. No one can deny that corrupt match fixing in tennis has occurred. And we cannot forget that this year marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the “Black Sox Scandal” when Major League Baseball players were bribed by gamblers to throw the World Series.”
Major changes were recently made by legislators to House Bill 194 to ensure Ohio conforms with the Federal Wire Act from 1961. The law makes it a crime to transmit or promote interstate or foreign wagering.
In January, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a legal opinion saying it could use the Wire Act, in addition to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, to go after online gaming activity.
“If online sports gambling is passed by the Ohio Legislature, it will be sidestepping the State Constitution and the will of the voters from 2009. Ohio will lose and the gambling industry will win,” says Baer.
You can watch testimony by Barry Sheets and Aaron Baer here (Testimony starts at 1:28:27) See the video below for more on gambling addiction.
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