The scrutiny from Congress largely comes from a contingent of lawmakers who have long focused on kids’ digital safety, for which efforts have largely targeted the addictive nature of social media platforms and artificial intelligence chatbots.
But as the rising popularity of prediction markets becomes impossible to ignore, lawmakers and safety advocates are wrestling with how to address the potential harms and addictive nature of betting markets on both minors and those younger than 21, the legal gambling age in most U.S. states.
“The fear for me — prediction markets, gambling, you name it — is we’ve sort of introduced it into the cultural conversations, we’ve socialized it, and now a 17-year-old wants to do it,” Jonathan Cohen, the sports betting policy lead for the American Institute for Boys and Men, told The Hill.
Cohen, whose research has focused on sports gambling and recently expanded to prediction markets, suggested teenagers likely do not “care a lot about the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and its regulatory structure.”
Lawmakers and their staffers are still learning the intricacies of how prediction markets work, though some legislative efforts emerged this spring in the wake of the boom of event contracts.
A bipartisan pair of senators introduced legislation Monday to ban digital gambling advertisements that target minors.
The bill, titled the Gaming Advertisement to Minors Enforcement (GAME) Act, would establish a federal ban on sports betting ads placed on social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok. Penalties for violating this could reach up to $100,000 per advertisement, The Wall Street Journal first reported.
The bill is sponsored by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Katie Britt (R-Ala.), both of whom have sponsored other bills to hold social media and AI platforms liable for the content shown to minors.
Blumenthal, who has pushed his Kids Online Safety Act for years, said sportsbook and prediction markets are “treating young people like a gold rush, flooding the internet with advertisements and promotions to hook them on gambling when they’re young.”
Check out the full report at TheHill.com.
