Ohio Gives Its Gaming Licensees Until 30 October to Stop Serving Prediction Markets

The Ohio Casino Control Commission has told every sportsbook, supplier, integrity monitor and testing laboratory it licenses to stop providing services "of any kind" to platforms offering sports event contracts in Ohio, or face reopened suitability investigations. With its cease-and-desist letters to the exchanges now challenged in court, Ohio is turning to the companies that keep them running.

• The Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) wrote on 20 October to all its sports gaming and fantasy contest licensees and applicants, telling any that support unlicensed sports event contract platforms serving Ohio to "immediately cease such activities"
• The letter names market-making, liquidity, integrity monitoring, data, platform, technology and security services, and covers sportsbook proprietors, management services providers, suppliers, key employees, integrity monitors, testing laboratories and applicants
• Licensees must confirm compliance by 30 October; those that do not face reopened suitability investigations that may lead to "denial, nonrenewal, suspension, revocation, or other administrative action"
• A footnote spares futures commission merchants and introducing brokers that block Ohio customers from sports contracts, a softer line on geofencing than the commission's August 2025 warning to sportsbooks
• It follows the commission's 10 cease-and-desist letters of 2 October and Polymarket's federal suit over its letter; the commission says it intends to act against companies that missed the 16 October deadline

Ohio Widens Its Prediction Market Fight From the Exchanges to Their Suppliers

The letter, dated Tuesday 20 October and signed by Interim Executive Director Andromeda Morrison, says the commission is "deeply concerned by reports that certain Commission licensees continue to facilitate, support, or otherwise provide services to entities offering sports event contracts to persons located in Ohio without a sports gaming license". The Event Horizon newsletter first reported it, and Sports Betting Dime published it in full.

A footnote defines "licensee" as all fantasy contest operators; sports gaming proprietors, management services providers, mobile management services providers, suppliers and their key employees; certified independent integrity monitors; certified independent testing laboratories; and applicants for any of those licences. Covered activities include market-making, liquidity, integrity monitoring, data, platform, technology and security services, and "any other product or service that facilitates or supports" sports contracts offered in Ohio. It names no licensee or platform.

"The continued facilitation or support of illegal gambling activity, or the affiliation with illegal operators, by a Commission licensee raises significant suitability concerns," it says, calling suitability "a continuing obligation of licensure". The concerns are "heightened", it adds, where platforms accept 18 to 20-year-olds, stay outside Ohio's responsible gaming and voluntary exclusion programmes, or offer wagers outside its approved catalogue.

Licensees must confirm compliance by 30 October and keep records to prove it. Otherwise, "the Commission will reopen suitability investigations concerning the licensee or applicant and any owners, officers, directors, key employees, or other persons associated with the conduct". The letter cites Chapter 3775 of the Ohio Revised Code, the sports gaming law, and Chapter 3774 on fantasy contests. Section 3775.02(F) lets the commission reopen a licensing investigation "at any time", and section 3775.041(B) has it weigh compliance with gambling licensing requirements "in this state or any other jurisdiction".

What Has Changed Since August 2025

Morrison told the commission's monthly meeting on Wednesday 21 October that the letter followed guidance issued in August 2025, CDC Gaming reported. That letter, signed by then Executive Director Matthew Schuler on 25 August 2025, was aimed at sportsbooks considering exchanges or brokerages of their own, and warned that geofencing Ohio "may not alleviate the suitability concern", according to the text The Closing Line published.

The new letter reaches suppliers as well as sportsbooks, sets a deadline and spells out sanctions. But its footnote says licensees that are futures commission merchants or introducing brokers and do not let Ohio customers "directly or indirectly access sports event contracts listed on Designated Contract Markets will be in compliance". It cites the Sixth Circuit's 25 September ruling against Kalshi, and says the commission "intends to take action" against cease-and-desist recipients that missed their deadline.

Morrison said the issues "remain under investigation" and that the commission would "vigorously defend Ohio's sports gaming laws" against Polymarket's suit, according to CDC Gaming.

Other regulators have used the same lever. Nevada's Gaming Control Board warned in November 2025 that partnering with an entity offering sports contracts in another state without complying with its rules "may call into question the good character, integrity, and associations of the licensee"; the same notice recorded Flutter's surrender of FanDuel's Nevada licences and DraftKings' withdrawal of its applications. Arizona's Department of Gaming (15 September 2025) and the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (13 November 2025) sent similar warnings.

Ohio Has Found a Pressure Point the Exchanges Cannot Litigate Away

Polymarket can sue Ohio, and has. Its suppliers hold Ohio licences at the commission's discretion, and other states ask about action elsewhere. Read literally, the letter does not ask suppliers to stop serving platforms in Ohio only; it asks them to stop providing services "of any kind" to any entity offering sports contracts to Ohioans. That makes the choice binary: persuade the client to block Ohio, or drop the client. It landed the day Utah sued Kalshi's market maker Susquehanna, and Ohio's list starts with market making.

Sportradar and Genius Sports Are the Most Exposed Suppliers

Both received Ohio sports gaming supplier licences in December 2022, the companies announced at the time. Both have since deepened ties with Polymarket US, one of the 10 cease-and-desist recipients: Genius Sports in August with official settlement data and integrity services, and Sportradar weeks later with data, live odds, streaming and integrity products. Neither had commented publicly by Thursday, as far as iGaming Times could find. They could argue that a national data feed does not support offers in Ohio, but testing that argument puts an Ohio licence at risk.

The Dual-Track Sportsbooks Get a Narrow Exit, Not a Free Pass

DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics all take bets in Ohio and run prediction products. At launch those products kept sports contracts out of states with legal online sports betting, and DraftKings Predictions left Ohio out entirely, Axios reported, so the letter's direct trigger may not reach them. Its "partner with" language reaches their counterparties, though. Fanatics Markets introduces customers, through its own introducing broker, to Crypto.com's derivatives exchange, and Crypto.com received an Ohio letter in March 2025. Whether that exchange now serves Ohioans is a question Fanatics may have to answer by 30 October. Nevada accepted a surrender and withdrawn applications; in Ohio, both FanDuel and DraftKings have live sportsbooks to lose.

Ohio has stopped asking only the exchanges to leave and started asking the companies that keep them running. The answers due on 30 October will show whether suppliers value an Ohio licence more than a prediction market client.