CLEVELAND — Gov. Mike DeWine is calling on the Casino Control Commission to ban prop bets from the legal list of bets that can be placed under Ohio's contractual rules for operators.
This comes after two Guardian pitchers, Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase, have been placed on paid leave through the end of August following separate gambling investigations.
The bets were flagged by gambling integrity monitor IC360, which partners with sports books, college conferences and sports leagues, including the MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL, among others:
The governor said he will ask sports commissioners and labor unions from the six major pro sports to support the ban on prop betting to "ensure the integrity of their leagues."
DeWine specified a problem with micro prop bets, which are prop bets involving highly specific events inside games that an individual player completely controls.
“The evidence that prop betting is harming athletics in Ohio is reaching critical mass. First, there were threats on Ohio athletes, and now two high-profile Ohio professional athletes have been suspended by Major League Baseball as part of a ‘sports betting investigation,’” said DeWine. “The harm to athletes and the integrity of the game is clear, and the benefits are not worth the harm. The prop betting experiment in this country has failed badly. I call on the Casino Control Commission to correct this problem and remove all prop bets from the Ohio marketplace.”
DeWine previously expressed concerns about prop betting after student-athletes at the University of Dayton received threats. He and NCAA President Charlie Baker joined together in February 2024 to urge the Ohio Casino Control Commission to make a change when it comes to betting on college sports — saying they'd like to see the commission remove college prop bets on the individual achievements of athletes.
