Guide to Ohio Gambling Age: Casinos, Sports Betting & More

Ohio, the Buckeye State, is famous for its airborne history as home to the Wright brothers and Neil Armstrong has less lofty history when it comes to gambling. Ohio, much like its conservative neighbors, has very few forms of legal real money available to its residents.

With very limited forms of gaming available to placate the gambling needs of Ohio residents, any outsider would question why the state has not yet diversified its playing options to satisfy the state’s residents’ interest in wagering. However, Ohio is a deeply Republican conservative state with strong family values.

On this page, we will discuss the legal Ohio gambling age requires any individuals to be in order to participate in any of the legal forms of gaming on offer.

In the table above you will be able to see the legal gambling age for each form of legal gaming in Ohio. As you can see the legal age for casino games and poker in the Buckeye State is 21, whereas the legal age for bingo, state lottery, Daily Fantasy Sports, and pari-mutuel wagering is only 18. If there is no age underneath the form of gambling then that form is illegal.

On this page, we will discuss each legal gambling age in more detail. We will also discuss the legality of each form of popular real money games in Ohio, as well as doing a deep dive into the history of gambling in the state while also looking to the future and letting you know if there are any upcoming gaming law reforms on the horizon.

Casino Age in Ohio

Ohio is one of the most recent adopters of commercial casino entertainment in the US. Casino gambling was legalized in the Buckeye State in 2004 when four commercial casinos were permitted to open in four of the state’s major cities. However, it took until 2012 for a casino to open its doors in Ohio. Once the first casino opened though it was like the floodgates opened and within two years four casinos and seven racinos had taken up residency within Ohio’s borders.

The legal gambling casino age in Ohio is set to 21, this age applies to both the states’ commercial casinos and racinos. Ohio’s four commercial casinos offer a large range of traditional table casino games alongside electronic gaming machines such as slots. Whereas Ohio’s seven racinos are limited in their offerings to only electronic gambling machines, which includes electronic lottery machines.

Ohio for casinos is set to 21 due to this being the legal drinking age in the US. By having Ohio’s casino age limit mirror the country’s legal gambling age casinos will be able to avoid getting into any issues with serving underage minors.

While the casino market in Ohio is booming, current legislation limits the number of commercial casinos allowed within the state to four. Should Ohio state want to capitalize on the commercial gambling market’s popularity they would have to alter state law to allow for further casinos to be built. However, due to Ohio’s established reputation as a very conservative state, it doesn’t look like there will be any legal reform any time soon.

What are The Casinos In Ohio that accept 18 year Olds?

There are no casinos in Ohio that allow entry to 18-year-olds . The legal gambling age in Ohio for casino games is set to 21. However, there are still some forms of gambling 18-year-olds can enjoy in Ohio. 18-year-olds are able to participate in the state lottery, play bingo, Daily Fantasy Sports, and place pari-mutuel wagers.

For those over the age of 21, and who want to visit one of Ohio’s four commercial casinos we have gathered together the casino’s names and addresses in the table below.

Sports Betting In Ohio

Ohio has a long history with major league sports teams and Ohio residents are known as avid sports fans, it seems anomalous than that sports betting is not legal in the Buckeye State.

After the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act 1992 (PASPA) was repealed in 2018 many states across the US almost immediately passed legislation to legalize sports betting – unfortunately for Ohio residents, Ohio was not one of these states. It appears that Ohio is instead of taking a step back and considering its options while it watches how sports betting progresses in other US states before it decides whether it should legislate for sports betting’s legality or not.

For fans of sports betting all hope is not lost in Ohio, there are two other forms of sports wagering legal in the Buckeye State. Firstly, pari-mutuel wagering on horse races is legal in Ohio. Ohio has a long history with horse racing, the state has allowed pari-mutuel wagering on it since 1933 and the state still has 11 horse racing tracks still in operation to this day. The legal gambling age to participate in pari-mutuel wagering in Ohio is 18.

Secondly, Daily Fantasy Sports is legal in Ohio for 18-year-olds as well. The beloved digital gambling game has been legal in the Buckeye State since 2016, we will discuss this in more detail in the dedicated Daily Fantasy Sports section found later on this page.

Ohio Online Gambling Age

Unfortunately for Ohio based fans of online casino games, online gambling is completely illegal in the Buckeye State. The only form of casino entertainment available in Ohio to residents is in-person casino games at one of the state’s commercial casinos or racinos. As online real money play is not legal in Ohio there is no accompanying online gambling age.

Where many other states have taken active steps to consider or looked into the possibility of legalizing online gambling once the Federal Wire Act 1961 was re-interpreted, Ohio has taken zero steps towards investigating legalizing online gaming. However, when you consider Ohio’s tentative approach to expanding gambling laws it makes sense that the state it taking its time and watching to see how online wagering plays out in other states before considering adopting it as a legal form of gambling itself.

Residents of Ohio are able to access online gambling websites that are based offshore and managed by offshore entities, while these websites might be appealing as they generally offer all casino favorites and allow players as young as 18 to participate – there are several reasons to be wary of gambling on them.

Firstly, the offshore gambling websites are not licensed in the US therefore if anything goes wrong for Ohio based residents when playing on them they will have no recourse against the operators of the websites under US consumer protection laws. Secondly, as online gambling is illegal in Ohio, anyone caught playing online could be prosecuted.

While online gaming might not be legal in Ohio there are still other forms of in-person gambling residents can enjoy. To check out what forms of real money activities are legal, and the lawful age associated with each of these checks out our easy to read legal gambling ages table at the top of this page.

Poker Gambling Age

Like online gambling, online poker is illegal in Ohio. But for those that are fans of poker, all hope is not lost, in-person poker is legal at all four of Ohio’s commercial casinos as well as the state’s many licensed card rooms. The legal gambling age for in-person poker in Ohio is set to 21.

Ohio state houses several card rooms which allow fans of poker the opportunity to play against fellow poker lovers in casual games, as well as in organized tournaments. Card rooms are able to be licensed in Ohio state so long as the house does not stand to profit from participating in any of the poker games being played in its premises.

While in person poker is very popular in Ohio, for reasons as outlined in the online gambling section above it doesn’t look like Ohio will legalize online poker anytime soon.

Daily Fantasy Sports

As mentioned earlier on this page, Daily Fantasy Sports has been legal in Ohio since 2016. Where Daily Fantasy Sports tends to languish in an area of undefined/grey law Ohio has taken active steps to legalize the popular online game for its residents. Under Ohio state legislation the legal gambling age for Daily Fantasy Sports is 18.

Daily Fantasy Sports was legalized as it allowed the state to clarify any legal uncertainties surrounding aspects of the game, as well as requiring all operators who wish to set up shop in the state to pay $10,000 each year as a registration fee.

With over 2 million residents of Ohio state playing Daily Fantasy Sports on a regular basis, the current laws are definitely working well. The only reason the state may choose to amend the Daily Fantasy Sports laws would be if they decide to tax the large amounts of revenue the game’s operators rake in each year.

Legal Age to Play the Lottery in Ohio

The state lottery is one of the oldest forms of gambling in Ohio, having been instated in 1973 the first lottery ticket was drawn in 1974. With a huge following within the state’s residents, the lottery has become a favorite statewide pastime. Under the state lottery laws, the legal gambling age for participating in Ohio’s state lottery is 18.

In 1988 Ohio state passed additional lottery laws that created the Lottery Profits Education Fund to use the lottery’s revenue as a means of funding public education projects. Since its inception in 1988, the Lottery Profits Education Fund has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to state education projects.

Ohio state residents have access to many local and multi-jurisdictional games such as Powerball, Mega Millions and Lucky for Life when playing the Ohio State Lottery.

One area in which the state’s lottery has not progressed into is offering an online lottery. As is the case with all other forms of online gambling in Ohio, an online lottery remains illegal in Ohio. As mentioned above, after the Federal Wire Act 1961 was reinterpreted in 2011 it was declared federally that online lotteries were legal. While some states, including neighbor Michigan, have started to offer lotteries online Ohio is yet to do so.

Ohio Gambling Laws & Future Outlook

Ohio’s gambling laws can be found within the state’s legislature under codes 2915 and 3769. These codes include definitions of what gambling is and what activities constitute illegal. Specifically, the following is considered gambling, ‘bookmaking; facilitating schemes or games of chance for profit; betting on schemes or games of chance for one’s livelihood; possession of gambling devices; playing craps; roulette or slot machines for money’. Under this definition, the few forms of real money gaming Ohio has legalized could be considered illegal.

Ohio State is able to legalize certain forms of real money games as they are listed as exceptions to the laws that define what is illegal gambling. Daily Fantasy Sports acts as an unusual exception as under federal law it is defined as a game of skill rather than chance, and therefore is not governed by gambling laws.

For a state that has a very conservative approach to its gaming market, Ohio has a thriving gambling market. In 2019 the states four commercial casinos and seven racinos contributed over $3.6 billion to the state’s economy, while also providing around 20,000 jobs for Ohio residents. Taken into consideration beside Ohio’s population this economic footprint indicates that Ohio residents certainly have an appetite for gambling.

There are taxes applied to gambling winnings in Ohio. The exact gambling winnings tax rate varies depending on the city in Ohio individuals opt to gamble in, however, the tax rate doesn’t vary massively it ranges from 2-2.25%. The state lottery also applies an additional 25% of federal taxes to any winnings above $5,000.

From an outsider’s perspective, the current outlook on gambling in Ohio might look unpromising. However, while there are a limited number of gambling forms available to Ohio residents, these limited forms are making a large economic footprint within the state.

In terms of future developments, it doesn’t look like Ohio’s state legislature will be amending Ohio’s gambling laws anytime soon. It looks as if for the near future Ohio state is happy to watch how the newer, more modern forms of gambling, fare in other US states before adopting any themselves.

Frequently Asked Questions

We hope that this page has provided you with a good overview of the laws in the state and the legal Ohio gambling age associated with each form of gaming the state has legalized. Should you have any additional questions, we have answered the most frequently asked questions below.