Sponsors (2)
Official title: Provide national safeguards to prevent abuse and fraud in online prediction markets, prevent underage use of online prediction markets, protect consumers, and return regulatory authorities and oversight of online prediction markets to States.
Introduced March 11, 2026 by Richard Blumenthal · Last progress March 11, 2026
The bill trades stronger consumer protections, enforcement tools, and state control over online prediction markets for greater federal gatekeeping, higher compliance costs, privacy risks, and a fragmented regulatory landscape that may reduce availability and innovation.
Adults in States that opt in (and vulnerable bettors) gain regulated online prediction markets with stronger consumer protections—location/age verification, withdrawal safeguards, deposit limits, and self‑exclusion—reducing gambling-related harms.
State and federal authorities (including DOJ and state AGs) can seek injunctions and criminal penalties and operate a coordinated enforcement process, improving ability to stop illegal operators and deter fraud or market abuse.
State and Tribal governments retain the power to regulate or ban online prediction markets within their borders, preserving local control and allowing jurisdictions to set protections that match local preferences.
Online prediction market operators (especially small platforms) face substantial new compliance costs—licensing, audits, data collection/storage, reserve funds, and reporting—which may raise prices, raise barriers to entry, or push smaller competitors out.
Federal gatekeeping (AG approval) and DOJ intervention authority centralize control, can delay or preempt state litigation, and create single‑point regulatory blocks to market entry or state programs.
A patchwork of State and Tribal rules plus obligations to follow each state's laws forces platforms to navigate fragmented requirements, increasing legal uncertainty and reducing nationwide availability of services.
Based on analysis of 24 sections of legislative text.
Creates a federal-State approval regime for online prediction markets, bans under‑21 wagering, limits promotions, requires verification and a national self‑exclusion list, and adds civil/criminal enforcement.
Creates a federal regulatory regime for online prediction markets by requiring operators to run only in States that adopt Attorney General–approved State wagering programs, banning under‑21 participation, prohibiting insider trading and market manipulation, restricting marketing and bonus practices, and establishing criminal and civil enforcement powers for the U.S. Attorney General and State attorneys general. It also creates a national self‑exclusion list administered by HHS, requires strong age/location/identity verification, and preserves State and Tribal authority to impose stricter rules or prohibitions.