Ohio Sports Betting Revenue Proposal Makes No Sense

Republican U.S. Representative Mike Ruilli has a plan for Ohio sports betting revenue. He wants to allocate it towards funding for the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Ruilli’s proposal is called the Giving Alien Migrants Back Through Lawful Excise Redistribution Act—also known as the GAMBLER Act. Under its terms, an estimated $300 million would be directed toward a Border Enforcement Trust Fund at the United States Treasury.

This initiative comes at a time when ICE, and the discourse surrounding the agency, has crescendoed to a contentious fever pitch. President Donald Trump ran on a platform that included a severe crackdown on undocumented immigrants, and he’s subsequently let ICE run amok to make good on his promise, even though it’s proving wildly ineffective, not to mention harmful.

This Plan for Ohio Sports Betting Revenue isn’t Going to be Popular

Pretty much nobody expects Rep. Ruilli’s plan for the revenue generated from sports betting in Ohio to be successful. As Pat Evans over at Legal Sports Report notes, elected officials on both sides of the aisle aren’t thrilled with how much money is already being allocated toward ICE:

“President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has led to a dire cash need for ICE. ICE is already $1 billion over budget through nine months of the fiscal year, according to a recent Axios report. Lawmakers from both parties are reportedly ‘alarmed by the spending’ and believe the administration could soon break the law by spending too much. Lawmakers are considering Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ which would send an extra $75 billion to ICE over the next five years. Rep. Mark Amodei, the top Republican on the House Department of Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee, told Axios that if there is any ‘hiccup’ in the budget, ‘those concerns are all capital ‘C’ concerns.’”

Using Ohio sports betting revenue to fund one of the most pointless presidential initiatives in history would be quite the choice. It would also take away from where those Ohio sports betting profits currently go.

About 98 percent of sports betting revenue in The Buckeye State goes toward educational services, with the remaining 2 percent used to fund problem gambling resources and prevention. Given that so many support sports betting in the United States because its proceeds are used on educational causes, the idea of knifing into that share almost assuredly won’t go over well.

The GAMBLER ACT Won’t Cover All $300 Million of Representative Ruilli’s Proposal

Furthermore, it remains to be seen where the rest of the money Ruilli wants directed towards ICE will come from. The GAMBLER ACT apparently aims for $300 million. If that’s an annual number, Ohio sports betting revenue isn’t going to cover it.

For the 2024 calendar year, The Buckeye State secured roughly $165.5 million in tax revenue from the top Ohio online sportsbooks. That is a 65 percent year-over-year increase from 2023, when the state reeled in roughly $101.2 million. Even if you project the same type of jump for this year—which is unlikely by itself—that puts Ohio sports betting revenue in 2025 will hit $273 million.

This falls short of the $300 million proposal. And that’s if we assume every single cent from Ohio sports betting goes toward ICE. It won’t.

Representative Ruilli’s GAMBLER ACT is also rooted in categorically untrue concern. ““Working-class Americans are paying the price while blue states and sanctuary cities harbor millions of illegal aliens who wave foreign flags in our streets, vandalize property, and drain resources meant for our own citizens,” he said in a statement, according to Evans. “Our neighborhoods are being overrun, our laws ignored, and our voices silenced by an out-of-touch elite that refuses to act.”

So many claim illegal immigration is nuking programs like Social Security and Medicaid. But that’s simply not the case.

Why the GAMBLER ACT Justification Makes Little Sense

People like Ruilli and Trump have focused so much on the financial damages associated with undocumented immigrants. But as the folks at American Progress point out, this isn’t actually the case:

“Undocumented immigrants and their employers are legally required to pay payroll taxes on their wages, even though they are not eligible for benefits from the programs funded by payroll taxes. In 2013, the chief actuary for Social Security estimated that about 3.1 million undocumented immigrants paid $13 billion in Social Security payroll taxes in 2010. And recent analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy indicates undocumented immigrants now pay $32.1 billion into Social Security and Medicare every year.”

Employed undocumented immigrants aren’t draining programs like Medicaid and Social Security. They’re helping to fund it. Those programs would without question suffer, dramatically, if their contributions were wiped from the ledger.

Ohio’s GAMBLER ACT Seems Destined to Fall Apart

This doesn’t seem like an initiative that’s going to make much headway. There are plenty of conservatives in Ohio, but many of them seem more concerned with reeling in government spending on ICE, rather than augmenting it. That logic seems like it will win out in the end.

If anything, the state legislature seems more likely to focus on a creative new tax plan for Ohio sports betting revenue. This proposal, sponsored by Senator Louis Blessing, would tax the Ohio sports betting handle (i.e. the total amount of money wagered) rather than just sportsbook profits. If it is ever successful, it would significantly increase the state’s potential budget. That is going to make more of a boots-on-the-ground-impact as opposed to increasing funding for a federal program.

Moral of the story: Changes may be coming to the way Ohio sports betting is used and acquired. It isn’t going to help finance ICE.

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