A quiet year for US states approving online gambling expansion is set to end on a muted note with the expiration of Ohio's Senate Bill 312, a late-season measure that received little public interest and almost no legislative consideration.
Introduced in September by Ohio State Senator Niraj Antani (R), who represents much of the greater Dayton area, SB312 was a largely straightforward bill that would have legalized several forms of iGaming, including online poker. The bill, though, had almost zero chance of success, and it might even have been a quid pro quo of sorts by Antani, at least bringing a bit of attention to the topic on behalf of the state's possible iGaming stakeholders.
Antani's SB312 languished for over two months without even being assigned to a Senate committee, sitting until mid-November until being sent to the first waystation for such bills, the Ohio Senate's Finance Committee. The bill received neither a hearing nor a vote, and no companion legislation was ever introduced in Ohio's Assembly.
Still no ninth US state for online poker
Ohio, like Maryland, where iGaming legislation was also introduced in 2024, could have become the ninth US state to legalize and regulate online poker, though the late introduction of SB312 gave it no real pathway to becoming law.
