Sponsors (3)
Official title: Ban certain types of wagers.
Introduced March 17, 2026 by Christopher Murphy · Last progress March 17, 2026
The bill trades stronger protections against speculative, harmful event betting and improved enforcement tools for significant legal uncertainty, broader criminal/civil exposure, and higher costs or reduced market functionality for businesses, consumers, and financial institutions.
Financial markets and the public are better protected from speculative bets on sensitive or harmful events because exchanges/clearinghouses are barred from listing or clearing contracts tied to those 'specified events,' reducing systemic and manipulation risks.
Americans could see reduced illegal event wagering and related fraud because the legislation makes certain event-betting unlawful and gives the Attorney General a civil tool to quickly enjoin unlawful wagering operations.
State insurance regulators, insurers, and federal backstop programs (e.g., terrorism backstop, NFIP, federal crop insurance) remain excluded from the statute's 'wager' treatment, preserving traditional insurance markets, regulatory authority, and federal insurance program availability.
Businesses (and consumers relying on them) could lose legitimate hedging and price-discovery tools because prohibiting contracts tied to broad 'specified events' can restrict lawful derivatives and indices, reducing market liquidity and raising costs.
The bill's vague 'specified event' criteria and broad prohibitions create significant legal uncertainty and litigation risk for novel contracts, platforms, payment processors, insurers, and state regulators about what counts as an unlawful wager.
Unclear amendments to criminal statutes risk expanding criminal exposure for individuals and businesses in ambiguous ways, raising overcriminalization and enforcement concerns.
Based on analysis of 12 sections of legislative text.
Bans wagers and related market contracts tied to terrorism, assassination, war, or similar non-financial events and authorizes AG injunctive enforcement; amends criminal and commodity laws.
Prohibits wagering on certain non-financial events such as terrorism, assassination, and war, and bars financial contracts and market listings tied to those events. It gives the Attorney General a civil enforcement tool for injunctions, amends several federal criminal and financial statutes to encompass prohibited conduct, and takes effect 30 days after enactment.