Ohio is moving closer to a rule that would bar bettors from funding online sportsbook and casino accounts with credit cards. The proposal has cleared public comment and is now awaiting two more state approvals before the Ohio Casino Control Commission can finish the change.
According to a July 9 report from Bettors Insider, the amendment to Sports Gaming Rule 3775-16-03 would remove credit cards from the list of acceptable deposit methods for deposit-enabled accounts. Debit cards, bank transfers, ACH and online bank pay would remain allowed, and the rule would still need sign-off from the Common Sense Initiative and the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review.
A later report said the public comment period closed on May 15 and that the commission was moving toward a late-summer vote. If the amendment clears the remaining steps, the new rule could take effect in late summer or fall, and Ohio bettors would need to link a bank account or debit card instead.
The change is being framed as a responsible-gambling measure. The concern is that credit-card wagering means betting with borrowed money that can carry high annual percentage rates and add to a debt spiral, while credit-funded betting has also appeared in research as a marker of problem gambling.
The practical effect may be smaller than it sounds. The reporting said many major operators, including DraftKings, FanDuel and bet365, have already phased out credit card deposits on their own, and most bettors already use debit cards or bank transfers rather than credit.
Ohio would also be joining a wider trend. Bettors Insider described the state as moving toward the group of roughly a dozen states that already restrict credit card funding for sports wagering, while the later report said Iowa, Massachusetts and Tennessee are among those that keep credit cards out of betting accounts, and the UK banned that form of funding outright in 2020.
The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has separately warned that credit card sports wagers can be treated as cash advances, triggering extra fees and interest. It said sports gambling is legal in 38 states and nearly $120 billion was wagered last year, and found that in 2022 major issuers charged $717 million in cash advance fees on $3.6 billion of volume. In Ohio, the bureau said cash advance fee volume rose by more than $1 million from December 2022 to January 2023 after legal sports betting launched, and in Kansas roughly 8,000 more accounts incurred such a fee in September 2022 than the month before.
