The Ohio House Speaker, Larry Householder, is set to resign from his position in the Ohio Legislature, after being arrested by the FBI on bribery and racketeering charges.

Householder has been a supporter of the progression to pass House Bill 194, which would see sports betting legalised in Ohio, however, these plans may now be shelved after the house speaker, along with five others, were arrested after it was found that they accepted $60M in bribes.

Those involved include Jeffrey Longstreet, Householder’s advisor, a lobbyist called Neil Clark, Matthew Borges the former Ohio Republican Party Chairman, and Juan Cespedes, the co-founder of a Columbus based consulting firm The Oxley Group. These men have been under FBI investigation for some time while a case was built against them.

House Bill 194 was passed on the 28th of May after which time it moved along to the Senate for further hearings which are pending. The legalisation of Sports Betting would see the state of Ohio benefit greatly especially due to COVID related difficulties. Two of the main Bill sponsors Representative Dave Greenspan and Representative Brigid Kelly are still confident of a