Federal officials should pursue stronger responsible gaming tools and clearer regulations on new gaming offerings, a panel of industry stakeholders said during a webinar Thursday.
With the rapid expansion of in-person and now online gambling over the past decade, the U.S. federal government must respond to new challenges for gamblers and types of gaming or gaming-related offerings, stakeholders stated. Speaking remotely during a webinar hosted by IC360, the panelists agreed the rapid changes to the industry require a federal response.
“Legislatively something's going to have to be done because every year or two something new comes along that you're going to have to continue to deal with,” said ProhiBet Managing Director Matt Heap. “The fact of the matter is it moves so fast, a regulated government entity cannot keep up with that at the speed that it changes and new things.”
Expansion creates problem gambling risks
Nearly 40 states have approved some form of legal sports betting since 2018 and another seven permit real money online casinos. Virtually every state government as well as Congress have discussed gaming advertising and regulations.
The hundreds of billions bettors wager annually and millions more sportsbooks spend on advertising has increased industry scrutiny, specifically to problem gamblers. This presents a grave threat to gaming’s perception in society, panelists agreed Thursday, and must be addressed at the federal level.
"If we don't have a national self-exclusion program sometime in the near future, we're going to have more and more people falling through the cracks and not providing them with the tools that they desperately need..." ProhiBet Director Matt Heap during an IC360 webinar today
— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) January 9, 2025
Though the percentage of problem gamblers is projected to be in the low single digits nationally, the increase in gambling access means this still constitutes a growing part of the population, said Dave Rebuck, former director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. New Jersey, one of the first states to legalize brick-and-mortar casino gaming, iGaming and sports betting, has taken a holistic approach to gaming disorders, a path that federal assistance must bolster.
One such tool would be a national digital self-exclusion list, Heap said. The current state-by-state patchwork for mobile and in-person exclusion lets problem gamblers cross state lines and continue gambling irresponsibly.
“It's insane that we're still doing things like that,” Heap said.
New gambling forms remain unaddressed
Aside from national responsible gambling tools, speakers at today’s panel (and across virtually all the rest of the industry) have opposed federal regulation around advertising and licensing. There's a growing consensus Congress and the Justice Department should take on policies for the growing number of online offerings state officials don't regulate.
Along with sweepstake and social casinos, there are a rising number of betting and prediction markets available. This includes Kalshi, which won a court case to sell prediction contracts on the 2024 presidential election, and extends to digital trading platforms such as Crypto.com, which offers Super Bowl futures contracts. These offerings find loopholes around existing federal policy, panelists said Thursday, that can't be addressed at the state level.
“It's an innovation that's turning into a problem that has to be addressed with legislation,” Heap said.
