Sports gambling, transgender athletes, NIL amendments all added to Ohio veterans bill

(The Center Square) – What originally was a straight-forward piece of legislation that would expand availability of an Ohio veterans identification card became more complicated Thursday after the Ohio House and Senate added three amendments.

House Bill 29 would grant veterans IDs to people discharged from the United States Public Health Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Senate, though, tacked on an amendment that would allow legalized sports gambling in the state. Then the House added amendments that would require youth athletes to compete in sports based on their sex assigned at birth and another that would allow college athletes to be compensated for their name, image and likeness.

The Senate passed the bill 31-0 late Thursday night, and it heads back to the House for a concurrence vote.

Rep. Jena Powell, R-Arcanum, introduced the House amendment to bar transgender girls from participating on female teams in sports. She had earlier introduced legislation that did the same, but it failed to make it out of the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee.

“The Save Women’s Sports Act embraces fairness and enables women to be able to achieve their dreams in athletics in our state,” Powell said when she testified in support of her original bill. “This legislation is crucial to preserving women’s rights, and the integrity of women’s and girls’ sports.”

Gov. Mike DeWine issued a statement Friday, saying the issue should be left up to local leagues and associations.

“This issue is best addressed outside of government, through individual sports leagues and athletic associations, including the Ohio High School Athletic Association, who can tailor policies to meet the needs of their member athletes and member institutions,” DeWine said.

The Senate amended the bill before passing it to include sports betting legalization with some adjustments to its previously passed legislation. It now gives casinos parity for retail sportsbook licenses with pro sports teams and gives 98% of the tax revenue to private and public education and stipulates that half of that money will fund extracurricular activities.

It also made changes to eBingo for fraternal organizations, reducing the number of machines from 10 to seven.

The original gambling bill created mobile, brick-and-mortar and kiosk licenses. The state would receive 10% from the net revenue of the operations, which will be directed to public and private education, gambling addiction and problem gambling.

The legislation would create 53 sports betting licenses broken into to Type A and Type B categories. Twenty-five licenses would be available for the state’s casinos and horse racing tracks to allow for partnerships with outside companies for betting online or on mobile apps. Thirty-three would be for brick-and-mortar locations such as existing casinos, sports bars or betting businesses.

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