Ohio Casino Control Commission Proposes 48-Hour Promo Freeze On RG Tool Use
A proposed Ohio rule would bar sportsbooks from marketing to customers for 48 hours after they set or change responsible gambling limits, with public comment open until 30 October.
The Ohio Casino Control Commission has proposed a rule barring sportsbooks from sending direct marketing to a customer for 48 hours after that customer enables or changes a responsible gambling tool, according to Legal Sports Report.
The commission said the amendment to Sports Gaming Rule 3775-16-03 is meant to address concerns about targeted marketing reaching people who are actively using problem gambling tools, which it called potentially harmful.
Written comments on the proposal are being accepted until 5 p.m. on 30 October.
Under the draft rule, the 48-hour marketing blackout would cover push notifications and any other digital or physical promotional material sent directly to a customer. It would be triggered whenever a bettor sets or alters a limit on deposits, wagers or time spent betting, but not when limits are chosen during initial account registration.
Existing Ohio rules already require sportsbooks to offer customers with funded accounts an easy and obvious way to set those limits as soon as they register, and at any point afterwards. Once a limit is set, it can only be loosened after the chosen limit period has expired, and operators must let customers opt into limits that renew automatically.
The proposal raises a practical question for regulators and operators alike: whether bettors might avoid using responsible gambling tools altogether if doing so means losing access to promotions, even temporarily.
DraftKings Chief Responsible Gaming Officer Lori Kalani addressed that tension on Thursday at a Louisiana Gaming Control Board meeting, telling the board that responsible gambling tools need to become normalised enough that bettors feel comfortable discussing their own limits with others.
Kalani pointed to DraftKings' past use of incentives to steer customers toward its own RG tools, including offering bettors a chance to win Super Bowl tickets simply for viewing their overall stats page.
Ohio is not the first state to consider this kind of restriction. A New Jersey bill introduced earlier this year would have gone further, permanently banning promotional marketing to any bettor who used responsible gambling tools. That measure cleared committee in May but has not advanced since. New Jersey's legislative session runs through 17 December, after which unfinished bills carry over into 2027.
The marketing rule is one of several changes the Ohio Casino Control Commission has proposed to sports betting regulation this year. An amendment floated on 5 October would tighten identity verification, requiring online operators to digitally examine a customer's ID against a live photo or video, and requiring retail operators to check government-issued ID in person or digitally. In July, the commission separately proposed removing credit cards as a funding option for sportsbook accounts.