Sponsors (2)
The bill prioritizes stronger consumer protections, market integrity, and state-level control over online prediction markets — but does so by imposing significant compliance, privacy, and jurisdictional costs that will likely reduce competition, limit some lawful uses, and raise implementation burdens for operators, states, and taxpayers.
Consumers and state residents gain stronger enforcement and deterrence because federal DOJ injunction authority, state attorneys general private-suit powers, and criminal penalties create coordinated legal tools to stop illegal or harmful online prediction-market activity.
Vulnerable individuals (including under-21s, young adults, and low-income people) get greater consumer protections and harm-reduction measures through national self‑exclusion, age limits, marketing and bonus restrictions, wager limits, and funding for treatment/education.
Operators and regulators get clearer definitions, dispute-resolution rules, and a predictable federal review/approval timeline (e.g., uniform definitions, stated resolution conditions, 180-day federal review and 3-year program terms), reducing regulatory ambiguity for platforms and states.
Online prediction-market operators face substantially higher compliance costs, entry barriers, and legal exposure (data retention, suspicious activity reports, licensing, state approvals), likely reducing competition, innovation, and increasing prices or fewer services for consumers.
Widespread collection and sharing of identity, location, and exclusion-registry data (including SSN/passport-level verification and a national self‑exclusion list) raise substantial privacy and data‑security risks for users if anonymization or protections fail.
Allowing States and Tribes to set differing rules, plus federal approval authority and broad AG discretion, creates fragmented regulation and jurisdictional complexity that will increase legal disputes, administrative costs, and compliance uncertainty for operators and governments.
Based on analysis of 24 sections of legislative text.
Creates a federal framework limiting and regulating online prediction markets, requiring State approval, banning under‑21 wagering, imposing anti‑manipulation rules, and establishing a national self‑exclusion list.
Introduced March 11, 2026 by Richard Blumenthal · Last progress March 11, 2026
Establishes a federal regulatory framework that restricts and governs online prediction markets. It requires those markets to be expressly authorized by an approved State wagering program (and overseen by a State regulatory entity), bars persons under 21 from registering or wagering, imposes anti‑manipulation and anti‑insider rules, sets criminal and civil enforcement powers for the U.S. Attorney General and State attorneys general, and creates a national self‑exclusion list run by HHS. Operators must verify user age, identity, and location, avoid listings that are manipulable or contrary to public interest, limit certain bonuses and VIP incentives, and follow State approval criteria for individual wagers; States must apply to the Attorney General to run wagering programs and meet specified public‑integrity and consumer‑protection standards.