COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Two new forms of gambling — iGaming and iLottery — could soon be legal in Ohio. iGaming allows someone to play casino games, like slots or blackjack, right on their phone while iLottery is the same concept but with buying lottery tickets.

Senate Bill 197 aims to legalize them both and is leaving state leaders at odds.

“I know we’re supposed to say gaming because it doesn’t sound as bad as gambling,” Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said. “Gambling is like other various vices, and the more you have of it, the more people are going to be injured by that.”

“I think there’s a different tone and tenor about some of these things than maybe there was ten years ago,” Ohio Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) said. “I think a lot of times, Ohioans want to have a little bit more choice as to how they spend their money and spend their recreational time.”

McColley said what his chamber is trying to do is “throw an idea and concept out there” that can be worked on over these next several weeks. McColley said the state has a lot of money to gain from legalizing online gambling and lottery.

“I’ve not received a firm estimate,” McColley said. “I think a lot of that depends on the details and how it would be structured and whatnot, but in other states that have done this, it’s hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue.”

For example, Michigan reported $264.2 million in revenue in December 2024 alone.

So, what would Ohio do with all that money? Right now, Senate Bill 197 puts 99% of revenue from online gambling into the state general revenue fund. That means state lawmakers would decide how a majority of it is spent.

“I think it ought to go into the general revenue fund, maybe we can do that to reduce income tax or some other tax in the future, but I, at the moment, until I see some other proposal, that’s where I think it would be,” Huffman said.

“Our position on this is that if we move in that direction, that that money should be used to provide more predictable funding for public education, for childcare,” Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) said.

Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) agreed that the money should go towards things like schools and childcare. She said those are things that every day Ohioans would want to see fully funded. But Antonio said addiction services cannot be forgotten; the bill currently proposes that 1% of revenue goes towards the problem gambling fund, which Antonio said makes sense.

“There’s always going to be people who suffer from addiction and that will be affected by increasing the access to these kinds of things,” Antonio said. “So, we can’t do one without really thinking about the other.”

Huffman is apprehensive that pouring more money into addiction services, while expanding access, will be the right solution.

“With iGaming, you can sit on your back patio and lose all your money, and for addicts, that’s a problem,” he said. “I don’t think spending more money on the 1-800 Gamblers Anonymous line necessarily helps it if more people are going to be affected by it, it’s a real problem.”

Russo is concerned about a proposal like this and how it would impact Ohioans who are not just 21 and over.

“I think there’s still some concerns about gaming in particular and its impact, particularly on workers, how it opens up addiction issues, as well as access to minors,” she said. “There are all kinds of potential issues that we need to navigate through.”


Huffman said he thinks this discussion needs to be had in a broader lens that considers completely restricting gambling authorities in the state. He said there are currently too many different agencies with a hand in it.

“There does need to be a sort of a reformation of how we deal with gambling in the state of Ohio as an infrastructure,” he said. “It seems to me that there probably should be one agency or department that deals with all that.”

While the Senate bill is on the schedule for its second hearing in the Senate Select Committee on Gaming, the House also has a pending bill that is on tap for its first hearing on Tuesday morning in Finance Committee.