diff --git a/sentry-opentelemetry/sentry-opentelemetry-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/opentelemetry/SentrySampler.java b/sentry-opentelemetry/sentry-opentelemetry-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/opentelemetry/SentrySampler.java
index eaed924bfa8..6729589744f 100644
--- a/sentry-opentelemetry/sentry-opentelemetry-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/opentelemetry/SentrySampler.java
+++ b/sentry-opentelemetry/sentry-opentelemetry-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/opentelemetry/SentrySampler.java
@@ -70,9 +70,9 @@ public SamplingResult shouldSample(
 
   private @NotNull SamplingResult handleRootOtelSpan(
       final @NotNull String traceId, final @NotNull Context parentContext) {
-    if (!scopes.getOptions().isTraceSampling()) {
-      // TODO [POTEL] should this return RECORD_ONLY to allow tracing without performance
-      return SamplingResult.create(SamplingDecision.DROP);
+    if (!scopes.getOptions().isTracingEnabled()) {
+      System.out.println("not trace sampling -> RECORD_ONLY " + traceId);
+      return SamplingResult.create(SamplingDecision.RECORD_ONLY);
     }
     @Nullable Baggage baggage = null;
     @Nullable