After weeks of contemplation, the Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) has officially announced its intention to ban the use of credit cards for sports betting in the state.
The OCCC sent a notice on Tuesday to confirm that it has formally proposed an amendment to state law to remove credit cards as a permissible funding method. It first revealed in May that it was considering the rule change, which must then be submitted to and ratified by each of the Common Sense Initiative and the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review in order to go into effect.
The regulator has opened up a comment period until Friday, July 17, for operators and other stakeholders to have their say on the idea. The OCCC will then hold a public hearing on a yet-to-be-announced date. The OCCC’s next two public meetings are scheduled for July 15 and Aug. 19.
Many Ohio sportsbooks already scrapped credit cards
The Ohio regulator does not seem likely to meet much opposition from its licensed online sportsbooks, given that the majority of them have already stopped accepting credit card deposits or withdrawals for any of their online betting or casino operations across the U.S.
All of the following operators have banned direct credit card usage for online gambling within the last 12 months:
- bet365
- BetMGM
- Caesars
- Fanatics
- FanDuel
- DraftKings
Another major operator, Fanatics, states that it has never accepted credit card deposits on any of its gaming platforms.
DraftKings was the first major operator that previously accepted credit cards to change course and ban them, doing so in summer 2025. First FanDuel and then BetMGM followed suit in March 2026, and bet365 and most recently Caesars made the change in April.
Some of those operators do still indirectly accept credit cards, by way of allowing third-party payment methods like gift cards that have been funded by a person’s credit card. SBC Americas reached out to the OCCC to ask whether that will be taken into consideration by the new rule.
State lawmakers frequently target credit cards
If the Ohio rule change ultimately comes into effect, as it seems likely to do, it will make the Buckeye State the latest American sports betting market to prohibit credit card use for online gambling. Many legal sports betting states already ban them via either legislation or regulatory measures, including the likes of:
- Illinois
- Massachusetts
- Tennessee
- Vermont
In the first half of this year alone, legislators and governors in other states including Colorado, Maine, and Virginia approved new state laws to stop their residents from being able to use credit cards to fund their online sports betting. Colorado was the latest to do so, with the prohibition included as just one measure in a wide-ranging consumer protection bill aimed at adding new safeguards for sports wagering.
Ohio’s second thought on sports betting
While Ohio’s gambling regulator prepares to make the rule change, some lawmakers in the state have much bigger and bolder ideas about how to change the sports betting market.
Last week, a group of Ohio Republican House members formally introduced House Bill 971, the “Save Ohio Sports Act“.
That bill would ban credit card usage for sports betting through legislation. It would do much, much more than that, including but not limited to:
- Repealing all digital sports betting and limiting the market to in-person retail bets only
- Banning all prop wagers, live bets, and parlays
- Prohibiting all college betting
- Capping wagering limits at $100 per bet
- Limiting the amount and frequency with which bettors can deposit
- Banning sports betting advertising during live sports broadcasts and imposing other ad limits
