Sen. Kirk Schuring, during his weekly appearance on 1480 WHBC with host Pam Cook, said the details of Ohio’s sports betting bill are 90% agreed upon by the House and Senate with the remaining 10% still being negotiated by the legislative bodies.

Members of the House and Senate had a productive joint meeting last week, but consensus on the state’s sports betting bill could not be fully worked out. Another meeting will be held this week to hopefully iron out the remaining details, Schuring said, and then a conference committee will be called to approve the bill for a vote.

Schuring noted the details of the bill, HB 29, largely remain the same as the document passed by the Senate in June. The operational and mechanical aspects of sports betting are generally agreed upon by both legislative bodies. There will be three categories of sports betting licenses that allow for online sports betting, brick-and-mortar sportsbooks, and lottery-owned sports betting kiosks, he said.

However, the details of Ohio online sports betting still need to be worked out, he said.

“It will be soon. I am telling you, I’m a tenacious guy. We are going to get this done. I’m not going to give you a timeline, but I think it will be very soon,” Schuring said.

Sports Betting Bill 90% Agreed upon

The conference committee consists of members from both the House and the Senate. If the member of the committee agree on the details of HB 29 and potentially push the bill to a floor vote. It will have to receive approval from both the House and the Senate, and then be signed into law by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R).

“We still have some heavy lifting to do. We agreed on about 90% of the issues, and 10%, maybe 5%, we didn’t. We have to get past these obstacles,” Schuring said during the interview.

If the bill is approved by both bodies and signed by Gov. Mike DeWine (R), it would have to wait 90 days before it could go into effect. Schuring previously said the Senate will suggest the application start date for sports betting licenses be Feb. 15, 2022, and applications would be approved no later than April 30, 2022.

DeWine, long a proponent of sports betting, will likely sign a sports betting bill into law.

What would legalized Ohio sports betting look like?

HB 29 includes three types of sports betting licenses. Type A licenses include state entities that have the ability to bank a bet, such as the state’s 11 casinos and racinos, and will include online sports betting licenses. Type B licenses will be for future brick-and-mortar sportsbooks. Type C licenses allow for sports betting kiosks to be installed in retail establishments with D-class liquor licenses.

The bill allows for 65 total licenses; 25 online sports betting licenses and 40 retail sportsbook licenses.