The Ohio legislature has legalized fantasy sports contests. The Ohio Casino Control Commission will license, regulate, investigate and penalize the fantasy contests. Office pools, fantasy leagues played through websites such as Yahoo and ESPN, and other sports pools such as the NCAA basketball tourney, where all monies collected are paid out in prizes, are not subject to the new law. This law targets for-profit fantasy sports contests such as those played through DraftKings or FanDuel. A fantasy sports contest operator must obtain a license from the OCCC.

A “fantasy contest” is a simulated game or contest with an entry fee that satisfies the following 4 requirements:

• Value of all prizes and awards is established and made known to all players in advance;
• All winning outcomes reflect the relative knowledge and skill of the fantasy contest players and are determined predominately by accumulated statistical results of the performance of managing rosters of athletes whose performance directly corresponds with the actual performance of athletes in professional sports competitions;
• Winning outcomes are not based on randomized or historical events, or on the score, point spread, or any performance of any single actual team or combination of teams or solely on any single performance of an individual athlete or player in any single actual event;
• The game or contest doesn’t involve horses or horse racing.

Among the requirements:

• Players must be older than 18;
• Fantasy sports operators, their relatives, or athletes are not permitted to play any daily fantasy sports contest;
• Fantasy contests based upon youth, high school, or college sports are prohibited;
• Fantasy sports contests are exempt from the Gambling Law.