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Assemblyman Hutchison wants to ban "microbetting" in New Jersey amid federal sports betting investigation
- jsaban8
- 23 hours ago
- 2 min read
By Ross DiMattei, Bill Seiders, CBS Philadelphia
A South Jersey lawmaker wants to ban a type of sports wager known as "microbetting," saying the practice can lead to impulsive gambling behavior and financial ruin — especially among younger players.
Assemblyman Dan Hutchison, a Democrat representing New Jersey's 4th District, has introduced a bill that would prohibit prop-style "microbets" in the Garden State. These bets allow gamblers to wager on individual moments or statistics within a game — such as how many points a player scores, the outcome of a coin toss, or the speed of a single pitch — rather than on the game's final result.
"What was really bothering me, actually, was the effects on young people," Hutchison said.
Hutchison is calling for the ban amid an active federal investigation into illegal gambling involving former and current NBA players and a coach. Some of the alleged illegal activity in the gambling scandal centered on prop bets.
As a bankruptcy attorney in South Jersey, Hutchison said he's seen firsthand how quickly sports betting can spiral out of control.
"I go through all the bank statements, I see all the FanDuel bets and all this, and he promised me it wasn't going to happen again," Hutchison said of one client. "But it did happen again. He went down on his bankruptcy payments, on his mortgage payments, and he's facing the loss of his home. It's terribly upsetting."
Hutchison said his proposal is designed to curb "excessive and impulsive gambling."
"Protecting our citizens from the dopamine-type effects that this type of betting has on people — we need to protect those people," he said.
Dr. Harry Levant, a certified gambling counselor and director of gambling policy at the Public Health Advocacy Institute, called microbetting "a dangerous and defectively designed gambling product."
"Microbetting is an out-of-control product," Levant said. "You can bet on the speed of every pitch in every baseball game, the speed of every serve in a tennis match, every point in ping pong from the Czech Republic. The human brain is not built to handle a known addictive product delivered at light speed through artificial intelligence."
But not everyone agrees with banning the practice.
Steve Maltepes, known in the betting world as "The Philly Godfather," has been in the sports gambling business for nearly 40 years. He said outlawing microbets would drive players to unregulated offshore markets.
"If you do that, you're going to send people to the offshore market," Maltepes said. "And they're the same people you're trying to keep the money from. We want to keep this money in the states for our tax revenue, for our streets, for our schools, because that's where it goes — this sports betting revenue."
Both Hutchison and Levant said they are not opposed to legalized sports betting overall, but they believe tighter regulations are needed — particularly when it comes to microbetting.