Digital Wager Wire highlights the most significant events affecting the domestic and international sports betting and gaming industries each week throughout the year.
Key Takeaways
- Ohio lawmakers are discussing an iGaming model that could give the state’s existing casinos and racinos preferential or exclusive access to online casino licenses.
- Ohio State Rep. Brian Stewart has cited estimates suggesting regulated iGaming could generate as much as $400 million annually for the Buckeye State.
- Tax Restoration Progress: The House Ways and Means Committee advanced H.R. 10357, the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, which includes language restoring the ability to deduct gambling losses up to 100% of gambling winnings, repealing the current 90% as stipulated in President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.
Ohio Discussing iGaming in 2027
More and more states are seriously discussing online casino gambling despite assertions that it is far more addictive in nature than mobile sports betting. However, it also generates much more revenue, which is an appealing proposition for many cash-strapped state budgets. Ohio is the latest to consider adding iGaming to its digital gaming menu after launching its sports betting industry in 2023.
State Representative Brian Stewart sponsored House Bill 298 in 2025, but the bill stalled in Ohio’s House Finance Committee. Nevertheless, it did incorporate land-based casinos and racinos into the equation by mandating that all promotions offered would require the customer to visit one of the state’s brick-and-mortar gaming facilities to redeem the promotional credits.
“We would say that you can’t offer online promotional credits,” State Representative Brian Stewart said during an iDevelopment and Economic Association panel Friday. “You can offer promotional credits, but they need to be credits for the land-based casino.”
Ohio currently licenses 11 land-based gaming facilities, some of which are operated by national companies, including Caesars, Hard Rock, and PENN Entertainment. By connecting iGaming with these casinos, at least some of the opposition may dissipate, as the casino operators would be awarded a piece of the iGaming pie.
Vixio, a regulatory technology and business intelligence company, estimated that iGaming in Ohio would generate roughly $488.6 million in annual revenue. Ohio’s bordering states, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, have all licensed online casino gambling, and many Ohioans are leaving the Buckeye State to wager online in those states, depriving Ohio of those tax dollars.
Move to Restore Complete Gambling Tax Deduction Friday,,
President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill was not the apple of anyone’s eye in the gaming industry, especially Nevada Representative Dina Titus and Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. That’s because the bill removed the 100% tax deduction for net gambling losses and dropped it to 90% beginning on January 1, 2026.
Representative Titus introduced the Fair Accounting for Income Realized from Betting Earnings Taxation, or FAIR BET Act, in 2025 as a standalone proposal to reverse the 90% cap. Rep. Steven Horsford later joined the broader, bipartisan effort through the FULL HOUSE Act.
These efforts have led to H.R. 10357, the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, which the House Ways and Means Committee advanced on September 16th and is the best chance to restore the 100% tax deduction.
“After 14 months of fighting to get this commonsense, bipartisan fix through committee, we must now encourage the House to approve this measure before Jan. 1, 2027,” Representative Titus said. “This would stop the reduction to 90 percent from taking effect and ensure gamblers across the nation do not pay this tax on phantom money they never won.”
Should the effort be successful and the provision become law, the repeal of the 90% cap would apply retroactively to the 2026 tax year, allowing gamblers to write off 100% of their losses this year and going forward.
