Published: February 24, 2019

Eight states have legalized sports betting; Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana sportsbooks expected

Last May, the United States Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that a 25-year-old federal law that prohibited sports betting outside Nevada is unconstitutional - allowing states to pass their own laws either allowing or prohibiting betting on professional and college sports. 

Seven states in addition to Nevada have since introduced full-scale legalized sports gambling and opened sportsbooks, and two of them - West Virginia and Pennsylvania - share a border with Ohio.

The others are Delaware, New Jersey, Mississippi, New Mexico and Rhode Island.

New York - where legislation failed in June 2018 but has been re-introduced this year - and Arkansas - where voters approved last November a constitutional amendment that will bring expanded gambling, including sports betting - are expected to be the next two states to open sportsbooks.

And many states - including Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan - are believed to be moving toward legalization.

In Kentucky, House Bill 175 passed a House panel earlier this week. It would allow Kentucky residents to gamble on sports legally at an approved location - such as a state-licensed horse racetrack or the Kentucky Speedway in Sparta - or on an app for which they register in person at an approved location, per Kentucky.com's John Cheves. It would need 60 out of 100 votes in the full House to pass.

So, can a Greater Cincinnati resident bet on sports, for instance, using West Virginia's first online sports betting and mobile app, which the state launched in December in addition to the sportsbooks that opened in casinos in Charleston and Wheeling? Only if you're physically in West Virginia.

Anyone outside the state is blocked by geo-tracking devices from using the app to bet.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/2019/02/21/state-state-sportsbooks-legalized-sports-gambling-tracker/2938122002/

© Public Gaming Research Institute. All rights reserved.