Ohio became the 11th US jurisdiction to join the restricted list of offshore sportsbook Bovada.
Bovada’s decision to block customers and stop accepting wagers in Ohio is its most recent shutdown since cutting off West Virginia in July.
The current list of states banned by Bovada includes:
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Maryland
- Michigan
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New York
- Ohio
- Washington, D.C.
- West Virginia
Bovada’s move came in response to an Aug. 16 deadline set by the Ohio Casino Control Commission in a cease-and-desist order sent to its Curacao headquarters.
In the letter dated Aug. 6, OCCC executive director Matthew Shuler accused Bovada of offering an “online casino, poker room, or sportsbook in Ohio” and raised concerns that the site allows 18-year-olds to wager. The legal gambling age in Ohio is 21.
Momentum Continues to Defend Home Turf
Ohio regulators have aggressively pursued what Shuler once dubbed an “army” of illegal operators in the state, ordering various fantasy sports and sweeps casino outfits to leave. Now, the state is taking another large sports betting market away from the most recognizable unregulated gray-market brands mining the US for customers despite the spread of legal sports betting.
Despite skepticism from industry observers early in the process, and with states still lacking the reach or resources of federal authorities, pushback grows against an illegal market that may still control about half of the sports betting economy in the US. Half, and shrinking, said Matt Holt, CEO of the IC360 sports betting integrity monitor.
“Who was chasing them before? Nobody,” Holt told Gaming Today. “Nobody was actually chasing them. We could say that they’re outlaws, but no one was chasing them. Now (state regulators are) under pressure from the licensees: ‘Hey, if you want us to pay $10 million of license fees, somebody has to go out and shut down these illegals. By the way, they’re taking tax revenue off your plate.’”
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