Sponsors
Introduced March 13, 2025 by Richard Blumenthal · Last progress March 13, 2025
The bill creates federal standards, consumer protections, and research tools to reduce gambling harm and clarify jurisdiction, but it centralizes data collection and cross‑jurisdictional rules that raise privacy risks, compliance costs, and legal uncertainty for operators, States, and Tribes.
Individuals with gambling problems and at-risk bettors: a national self-exclusion framework and required operator self-exclusion tools let people opt out across participating jurisdictions, improving access to harm-reduction measures.
State governments, Tribes, and operators: clearer statutory definitions (e.g., regulated activities, 'anonymized' data, where a wager 'occurs') reduce legal uncertainty about jurisdiction and applicable rules.
Sports wagering operators in opt-in States: uniform federal standards let approved operators lawfully accept wagers under clearer federal rules, reducing legal risk for businesses operating across states.
Online bettors and the general public: collecting sensitive identifiers (SSN/passport), IP addresses, and location data — plus labeling such data 'anonymized' — raises substantial re-identification and privacy breach risks.
Small operators, States, and taxpayers: extensive new licensing, background checks, data collection, five-year retention, integration with federal self-exclusion and surveillance, and other compliance requirements will raise administrative costs that may be passed to consumers.
State governments, operators, and bettors: expanding federal cross-jurisdictional rules, a broad prohibition in non-opt-in states (with an 18-month delay), and a severability clause create legal uncertainty and could disrupt existing business models and enforcement regimes.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Sets federal standards for online/interstate sports wagering, authorizes civil penalties for unlawful wagers, requires State program approval, and creates a national self‑exclusion list and gambling surveillance.
Establishes a federal framework for online and interstate sports wagering that authorizes civil enforcement against unlawful wagering, sets standards for State-approved sports wagering programs, and creates public‑health measures including an annual HHS survey, a national self‑exclusion list, and a National Gambling Addiction Surveillance System. It clarifies where wagers legally ‘‘occur’’ (including on Tribal servers), preserves State and Tribal taxing and regulatory authority, and directs the Attorney General to pursue unlicensed offshore operators and civil penalties for violations.