The stakes were high Saturday night.

In a 1,230 square foot ballroom in Florence, Indiana – a small census-designated place an hour’s drive from Cincinnati – stood hundreds of sports fanatics cluttered together with drinks in hand and eyes scattered across 13 jumbo-screen TVs. Many were from the area, but ther traveled from Indianapolis, Lexington and the Queen City.

Yet most shared the same reason for being in the ballroom.

To win big.

Sports betting was legalized in Indiana Sept. 1. Eight days later, former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson placed the first bet at the Belterra Resort Casino in Florence. Even though Anderson lost his $100 betting on the Bengals, he was the perfect figurehead to symbolize the loophole in Indiana’s new law:

You don’t have to be from Indiana.

And because of this, people have taken road trips for the chance to cash out.

“We saw a lot of NFL fans on Sunday from all over,” Blair Bendel, the vice president of marketing for Florence’s Belterra Casino Resort and Belterra Park in Cincinnati said. “It seemed to be a new level of excitement.”

Thanks to its deal with FanDuel, the casino’s 13 self-serving kiosks allow patrons to bet as they please on a variety of sports such as: professional baseball, basketball, soccer, football, golf, boxing, motorsports and even collegiate football and basketball.

All that betting means more revenue for the casino. Bendel wouldn’t say what the biggest payout was, but the resort was busy throughout the weekend thanks to the slate of professional and college football games.

It's got Belterra excited.

“It’s a new audience that we get to enjoy visiting our property that was not previously coming.” Bendel said.

In fact, Belterra is so enamored with its new money maker once Indiana potentially allows for mobile betting in the coming months, the company will unveil its mobile product.

Unfortunately for Belterra Resort, its sister property won't reap the same benefits for some time.

Belterra Park Cincinnati is in Ohio, which doesn’t yet have legalized sports betting. That could change, but don’t hold your breath.

Ohio currently has two bills in its legislature regarding the issue. The main difference is one — a senate bill— places regulation with the Ohio Casino Control Commission and the other — house bill 194 — the Ohio Lottery Commission. 

The Senate bill lacks information such as where the money is raised, while the house bill is clear allowing sports betting at the four standalone casinos in Cincinnati, Columbus, Toledo and Cleveland as well as seven racinos like Belterra Park.

Both bills are having trouble moving through legislature.

“There hasn’t been any movement in the legislature recently on the two bills that were introduced,” Jessica Franks, director of communications for the Ohio Casino Control Commission said.

Ohio’s further along in the process than many states, however. Since last year when the Supreme Court gave states the power to legalize sports gambling, 13 of them have fully legalized it, six have passed bills, 25 have presented bills and only seven haven’t introduced a bill yet according to ESPN’s sports bill tracker.

Franks said it seems like timing has been the biggest obstacle so far for the two bills. When they were announced, Ohio’s legislature's main focus was on the state budget. After handling the budget, it took its summer recess. Now that legislature is back, bills that deal with pressing issues such as gun violence take up a great deal of its time,

And even if the bills do start to move again, they’ll still go through the gauntlet of being edited and shipped back, and if they get through that, it still takes time for a new law to come into effect.

“I think for a lot of members they may not have had the chance to look over the bill,” Franks said.

It could be awhile before Ohio passes a law on sports gambling, but bets are now being placed just across the border.

This article is a reprint from Cincinnati.com.   To view the original story and comment, click here.