Ohio Regulators Move to Ban Credit Card Sportsbook Deposits

^{Ohio is looking to prohibit credit cards from being used for online sportsbook deposits. (MIKA Images / Alamy)}

The Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) sent a notice to stakeholders on Tuesday confirming that it planned to move forward with proposing a change in Ohio state law that would ban credit cards as an allowed deposit option at online sportsbooks.

The OCCC first publicly announced its consideration of the change on May 4, 2026, and will be accepting comments on the proposal until Friday, July 17.

iGaming Industry Moving Away from Credit Cards

The move may not change all that much for Ohio sports bettors. Many online gambling operators in the state have already stopped accepting credit cards for account funding, if they ever accepted them in the first place.

In many cases, companies have banned the practice nationwide. DraftKings was the first to make that change in 2025, with others including Caesars, FanDuel, and BetMGM also having done so in the past year. Credit cards have been banned for online gambling in several other states as well, including in Illinois, Colorado, and Massachusetts.

Preventing players from funding their iGaming accounts with credit cards has long been viewed as a responsible gaming hallmark by groups that work to prevent problem gambling.

“One of the cardinal rules of gambling, at low risk, is spending money that you have,” Problem Gambling Network of Ohio Executive Director Derek Longmeier said via the Statehouse News Bureau. “If you’re putting money on a credit card, then obviously, that goes beyond that.”

For the change to go into effect, the rule would require approval from Ohio’s Common Sense Initiative and its Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review.

Ohio Continues Pushback on Sports Betting

But the move carries more weight in Ohio, where a growing number of lawmakers have concerns about the sports betting industry and have expressed a desire to rein in online gambling.

On June 29, two Ohio legislators introduced a bill that would ban all online sports betting in the state, while also placing severe restrictions on land-based betting and advertising, including a complete ban on college sports wagering. The bill, known as the Save Ohio Sports Act, would protect Ohioans from gambling harm and predatory operators, according to its sponsors.

That legislation and similar restrictions are likely to find a powerful ally in Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who has said that legalizing sports betting was his biggest regret from his time as Gov. DeWine asked the OCCC to eliminate individual athlete prop bets on professional sports in 2025 (those bets are already banned in the state at the college level), and has come out again iGaming expansion in the state.

Much of the blowback is the result of the pitch fixing scandal that embroiled the Cleveland Guardians in 2025. Two pitchers on the team were suspended indefinitely for allegedly being part of a scheme to help bettors win prop bets by intentionally throwing balls on the first pitch of various innings.