North America

Florida’s Attorney General says the state has sent cease-and-desist letters to several major payment companies to warn that they are violating state laws by providing services to unauthorized gambling operators.

James Uthmeier announced the move in a press conference on June 10, during which he detailed authorities’ collaborative effort to shut down unlicensed gambling sites. In a Florida AG’s office press release, he cautioned that payment processors’ facilitation of illegal online gaming may implicate the state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO Act).

Uthmeier wrote on X that Florida has targeted multiple renowned payment companies, including:

American Express

Mastercard

Visa

“Payment processors such as Visa, Mastercard, and American Express undermine Florida law by facilitating transactions for foreign-owned illegal online gaming,” added Florida’s AG in a post on June 10. “Today, they’re receiving a cease and desist. My office will take appropriate legal..

Michael Selig’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) officially published its proposed prediction markets rules on Wednesday after months of review and thousands of public comments.

The 267-page document outlines how the federal regulator intends to approach event contract trading across the U.S. and reiterates the agency’s stance that prediction markets broadly fall under its purview as ‘swaps’ under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA).

“The CFTC will protect the integrity of our regulated markets without standing in the way of responsible innovation,” said Selig in a CFTC press release. “This proposal gives the Commission a durable, transparent framework to identify the contracts Congress directed us to scrutinize while letting legitimate markets move forward.”

The proposed rules, which are subject to a final period of review before they could be formally implemented, cover a lot of ground.

Unsurprisingly, sports are a major focus of the public interest determinations. Sports..

A state representative in Pennsylvania says he will soon file a bill that would restrict anyone on school property from accessing licensed online gambling apps.

Republican Rep. Jason Ortitay announced on Tuesday that he has authored the legislation with the intent of trying to shield students from online sports betting and casino gaming. He has not officially filed the bill as of the time of writing, but intends to do so in the near future.

The legislation would require licensed online sportsbooks and casinos to use what the lawmaker called “geospatial technologies” to prevent players from accessing the apps or sites while physically located on school property, including:

Classrooms

Other buildings

Exterior school grounds

“Pennsylvania has authorized interactive gaming and sports wagering under a licensed and regulated framework,” Ortitay wrote. “That framework was built for adults making lawful choices. It was never intended to reach into our classrooms. Yet the reality today is..

Two lawmakers in Pennsylvania are taking note of recent legislative efforts to bolster consumer protections for gambling in Colorado by introducing similar legislation of their own.

Reps. Tarik Khan and Jamie Flick announced on Wednesday plans to introduce three separate bills that are geared toward addressing problem gambling in the Keystone State.

“As a nurse practitioner, I believe we should address problem gambling the same way we address other public health challenges: with prevention, education, treatment, and commonsense safeguards,” said Khan. “Our bipartisan bill package will help protect young people, individuals, and families while supporting responsible gaming.”

The measures to be introduced by Khan and Flick each plays a different role in implementing new consumer protection standards for Pennsylvania’s gaming market.

The three bills the lawmakers will introduce include:

The Pennsylvania Online Consumer Protection Act: a measure that aims to impose limits on the numbe..

Two Congressmen have introduced new federal legislation that would mandate the U.S. government to conduct a multiyear study into the causes, long-term effects, and treatment of gambling disorders, particularly those related to online sports betting.

New York Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman and Utah Republican Rep. Blake Moore announced last week that their bipartisan Gambling Disorder Health Study Act has officially been introduced in the House of Representatives.

The bill, numbered HR 8970, would:

Mandate a federal study into gambling disorders and harms

Analyze the contributing factors, which may include sports betting expansion

Assess potentially effective prevention and treatment strategies for gambling disorders

Require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to report annually to Congress on the study’s findings, and to provide resultant policy recommendations

Federal excise tax would fund gambling disorders study

The legislation stipulates that the study would be funded b..

A bill to prohibit licensed sports betting operators in New Jersey from offering micro bet markets is gaining momentum after an Assembly subcommittee advanced the measure on Monday.

The state Tourism, Gaming and the Arts Committee approved Assembly Bill 3258 by a 6-0 vote with one abstention. The bill, introduced by a consortium of Democratic Assemblymembers in January, explicitly bans micro, or “live bets” in the Garden State.

“Micro betting has become an increasingly popular practice whereby bettors can wager on each play in a sporting event,” reads AB 3258. “Examples of micro bets include whether the next pitch in a baseball game will be a strike or whether the next play in a football game will be a pass or run.”

Bill takes live ‘next play’ bets off the menu

AB 3258 provides clarity of what is considered a micro bet, defining the offerings as “a proposition bet which is wagered live, while a sport or athletic event is ongoing, and concerns the outcome of the next play or action ..

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has signed an expansive sports betting bill that implements new responsible gaming standards and procedures for operators and bettors in the state.

Polis signed Senate Bill 26-131 on Monday, a measure making sweeping changes to Colorado’s sports betting market by adding new requirements aimed at protecting bettors in the state. The bill includes a landmark provision for regulated gaming in the U.S. related to how sportsbooks communicate with bettors.

What changes are being made to Colorado sportsbooks?

The Colorado sportsbook measure implements several sports betting-related changes in the Centennial State:

The bill makes Colorado the first state to prohibit the delivery of push notifications or texts to solicit bets

Bettors are no longer allowed to use credit cards to fund player accounts

Operators are barred from using “bonus bet” or “no sweat” language in marketing

Bettors are limited to six separate deposits for a sportsbook in a 24-hour period

Mar..

The legislative effort to require sportsbooks in New York to provide players with monthly betting account statements has reached its last step before a potential governor’s signature.

New York Assembly Bill 10329 was unanimously advanced on Tuesday by the state Senate with amendments, sending the measure back to the Assembly for a final vote before heading to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk.

How would New York betting statement bill work?

Assemblymember Rebecca Kassay’s consumer protection bill aims to amend New York gaming law to require licensed operators to send sportsbook account holders monthly account activity statements via push notifications. Kassay’s legislation also requires operators to make the statements “continuously accessible through the bettor’s account.”

Under the NY sports betting bill, operators must deliver the activity statements to each account holder within 15 days of each calendar month ending, mirroring financial institutions.

The New York gaming bill also requi..