Pennsylvania lawmakers have received a sweeping 126-page proposal calling for significant tightening of the state’s sports betting regulations.
The report, titled Sports Betting and Related Interactive Gambling in Pennsylvania, was produced by the Joint State Government Commission under House Resolution 60 of 2025.
Its central approach is more measured than an outright crackdown, favouring data-driven analysis before implementing broader restrictions.
Licensed operators would be required to submit anonymised player data for independent research examining deposits, wager sizes, frequency, speed, session length and parlay usage.
Those findings would then guide more precisely targeted restrictions at a later stage, rather than applying sweeping rules immediately.
Among its immediate recommendations, the study proposes barring sportsbooks from accepting credit card deposits for player accounts.
Bettors could also be required to set mandatory limits on losses, session duration and deposit frequency before placing any wager.
The report additionally supports banning in-game microbets, which can settle within seconds, and calls for the elimination or sharp reduction of VIP reward programmes tied to betting volume or losses.
Advertising practices face scrutiny too, with the report backing formal restrictions against campus marketing, ad saturation and sports wagering promotions on public-school property.
That restriction could extend to public universities through geolocation technology, with direct promotional offers also facing tighter limits for users not logged into their accounts.
The recommendations come against a backdrop of mounting evidence that legalised betting has contributed to increased gambling harm across the state.
A 2025 Pennsylvania assessment estimated that between 17% and 30% of adults had gambled online, with sports betting remaining the most common format.
The potential problem gambling rate was placed between 2.5% and 6.4%, while a further 27.9% to 29.9% of participants were classified as at risk.
Online gambling was mentioned in more than half of all calls made to 1-800-GAMBLER, and self-exclusions rose nearly 65% compared to the previous year.
Despite these figures, revenue continues to grow strongly, with Pennsylvania gambling generating almost $6.4 billion during the 2024-25 fiscal year.
iGaming contributed nearly $2.48 billion of that total, while sports wagering produced approximately $487 million, underlining the significant economic weight of the industry.
The report acknowledges that regulation must protect players without disregarding the market’s considerable economic role for the state.
Pennsylvania is not alone in examining these issues, as Colorado enacted a 2026 law banning credit card sportsbook deposits and limiting users to six deposits per gaming day.
Colorado also bars push notifications or text messages soliciting bets or deposits, and requires operators to submit annual data for state reporting purposes.
Louisiana, Massachusetts and New Jersey each have bills that would restrict micro-betting, though none of those measures has advanced significantly in recent months.
The Pennsylvania report’s proposals now rest with the General Assembly or the Gaming Control Board, and neither body has publicly commented on the findings.
