Ohio is moving to remove credit cards as a funding option for deposit-enabled sports gaming accounts, a change that would make card-funded betting off-limits statewide if it is approved.
The Ohio Casino Control Commission’s Common Sense Initiative page says the proposal would amend Sports Gaming Rule 3775-16-03 and invites written comments by 5 p.m. Friday, July 17. The page also says the commission submitted 21 administrative rules on July 13 as part of a five-year review package containing 37 rules.
Under the current rule, deposit-enabled accounts can be funded by credit or debit card, ACH transfer or wire transfer. The amendment would remove credit cards from that list, so bettors who now top up with a card would need to use another method such as a bank account or debit card.
LowerBuckstimes reported that the amendment had already been through a public comment period that closed May 15 and was moving toward a late-summer vote. That account said the rule would still need sign-off from the state’s Common Sense Initiative and the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review before taking effect.
The practical disruption may be smaller than the headline suggests. According to the same report, most major operators have already stopped accepting credit cards for deposits or withdrawals across their U.S. operations, either because of operator policy or because card issuers block gambling transactions.
In that telling, the Ohio rule would turn an industry norm into a legal floor that no operator could undercut. The source framed the move as a responsible-gambling measure, arguing that wagering with borrowed money can deepen a debt spiral.
The report also linked credit-funded betting to problem gambling and pointed to Britain’s ban on credit-funded betting in 2020. It said a growing number of U.S. states, including Iowa, Massachusetts and Tennessee, already keep credit cards out of betting accounts.
The proposal lands amid broader tightening in Ohio gambling policy. The report said the state doubled its sports betting tax in 2023 and has taken a hard line on advertising violations, while two lawmakers want to go further and unwind mobile betting entirely through House Bill 971.
