- Legal sports betting officially launched in Ohio on January 1st.
- MLB legend Pete Rose who played and managed the Cincinnati Reds of MLB made the inaugural first bet at the Hard Rock Sportsbook in Cincinnati.
- The OCCC announced last Friday that it has levied a $350,000 fine on DraftKings for violating the state’s legal sports betting regulations even before it could take its first bet.
After a four-year process, legal sports betting in Ohio finally launched on New Year’s day.
MLB legend Pete Rose had the distinction of placing the first legal bet in Ohio at the stroke of midnight last Sunday at the Hard Rock Sportsbook in Cincinnati.
Pete Rose bets on the Reds to win the World Series with the first official legal sports bet in Ohio. pic.twitter.com/kKHLWKh2ZZ
— Cincinnati 💔 (@CincyProblems) January 1, 2023
Rose was both an interesting and ironic choice to make the ceremonial bet in Ohio, given his controversial history.
Pete Rose Bet on Reds to Win World Series
The 81-year-old Rose played in the majors from 1963 to 1986, mostly for the Reds who were known as the Big Red Machine for their dominance in the NL during the 1970s.
He finished his baseball career as the MLB all-time leader in hits (4,256), games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053), singles (3,215), and outs (10,328). Rose won three World Series titles, three batting titles, one MVP, two Gold Gloves, and 17 All-Star game appearances.
After his retirement, Rose went on to serve as team manager for the Reds. However, in 1989, he was penalized with a lifetime ban from MLB amidst accusations that he placed bets on MLB games as a player and manager, including claims that he bet on the Reds when he was the team manager.
Rose’s inaugural bet was ironically made on the Cincinnati Reds to win the 2023 World Series. The Reds won only 62 games this past campaign and are longshots 100-1 to win the Commissioner’s Trophy next fall.
Not Without Controversy
Ohio’s heavily-awaited sports betting launch did not come without controversy as even before the betting floodgates opened, the Ohio Casino Control Commission had levied the first fine on an operator for violating the state’s legal sports betting regulations.
In a statement issued last Friday, the OCCC announced that DraftKings had been fined $350,000 for mailing thousands of advertisements to persons under the state’s legal betting age of 21 years old. The violation was committed last November when the company mailed an estimated 2,500 such letters to ineligible gamblers.
DraftKings has not commented on the matter but it is entitled to make an appeal and if so, a hearing will follow but the final decision is still with the OCCC. In a statement, OCCC Executive Director Matthew Schuler said:
The OCCC has instructed DraftKings to implement new procedures to ensure that marketing materials are not sent to anyone below the legal gambling age or to those whose age has not been verified.
Not the First Time For DraftKings
That wasn’t the first time that DraftKings had been meted a fine for violating sports betting rules. The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement also handed out a $150,000 fine to DraftKings for violations committed in 2019 and 2020. The violation involved allowing a VIP bettor to make out-of-state proxy bets in New Jersey.
DraftKings fined $150K by N.J. for allowing proxy out-of-state betting https://t.co/Lw83z3VSKP pic.twitter.com/qQnKpjLi5y
— njdotcom (@njdotcom) March 4, 2022
In 2021, it also paid $10,000 in New Jersey for mailing “promotional letters” to 11 people under the self-exclusion list. Earlier this year, DraftKings also paid 100,000 CAD in Ontario for violating sports betting advertisement rules.
