States take aim at prop bets amid integrity concerns

BY REID WILSON

State Affairs National Reporter

Lawmakers in half a dozen states are considering bills to ban or severely limit proposition bets amid growing betting scandals in major sports leagues and rising concerns over the increase in problem gambling across the nation.

States are raking in billions in gambling revenue in the wake of a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down a federal ban on sports wagering. Much of the money the sports betting industry earns comes from prop bets, wagers on a specific event within a game that is not dependent on a final score.

Those bets include whether a player scores a specific number of points, runs for a certain yardage or scores a touchdown. Gamblers can even wager on more immediate outcomes — whether the next pitch is a ball or a strike, or the next play is a run or a pass.

Now, legislators are seeking to ban prop bets.

Two separate bills in New York would ban prop bets on all events and wagers on in-play events, limiting bets to the final outcomes of games, the total score or the winner. Four bills introduced in New Jersey would prohibit prop bets, player-specific bets or micro-bets. Bills in Kentucky, Massachusetts and Utah would ban prop bets and in-play wagers. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, has proposed banning all prop bets, though lawmakers have yet to introduce a bill.

Lawmakers worry such bets — increasingly featured in advertisements from betting companies and on game-time sports broadcasts — are leading to risky gambling behavior.

“I voted to allow sports book gambling in New Jersey, and I never thought it would come to this. I never thought about the apps and opening it in your hand,” Sen. Paul Moriarty, a Democrat and the lead sponsor of legislation to end prop betting and micro betting, said in an interview. “I think it’s really detrimental to our society. I think it’s leading to compulsive behavior. I think it’s leading to addiction.”

Moriarty’s bill would ban both prop bets, on an individual player’s statistics, and micro bets, on the outcome of the next play. It would require gambling sites to collect customer information to ensure players are of age and have the means to bet. And it would bar the use of credit cards to make wagers.

“We don’t think you should be gambling money you don’t have,” Moriarty said.

A spokesperson for the American Gaming Association did not respond to a request for comment. But the Sports Betting Alliance, a group funded by the industry’s largest players, said banning prop bets in the legal market would only lead to the growth of an unregulated black market.

“Calls to ban legal, regulated player prop markets miss the mark and risk eliminating key oversight capabilities and consumer protections like strict age verifications, while driving users back to illegal betting websites, where there are no protections preventing kids from joining, bad actors thrive, and the very same prop markets are being offered today,” the group’s spokesperson said in an email. “Limiting legal activity just drives it underground — if protecting the integrity of sports and safeguarding consumers is the goal, then keeping prop bets on the legal regulated market is the only effective path forward.”

Problem gambling is especially on the rise among young men, lawmakers and industry analysts say.

“Sports gambling is destroying my generation,” Utah Rep. Tyler Clancy, a Republican born in 1997, told fellow lawmakers debating a bill to ban prop bets. “I can tell you without a doubt that sports gambling and these prop bets … [are] a huge drain on young people today.”

Studies show bankruptcies spike in states where sports wagering becomes legal. Nearly 1 in 10 Americans carry debt due to gambling. States across the country are reporting increases in calls to problem gambling hotlines; calls to a helpline operated by the National Council on Problem Gambling has risen 150% since 2018, the group said.

Some lawmakers are also worried about the threat prop bets pose to the integrity of sporting events. In just the last few months, federal prosecutors have brought charges against athletes accused of manipulating their own performance to satisfy gamblers.

A federal indictment unsealed in January in Pennsylvania accused 20 college basketball players of manipulating games during the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 seasons. In November, the Justice Department charged a pair of Cleveland Guardians pitchers for allegedly rigging bets on pitches thrown during Major League Baseball games beginning in 2023. And in October, federal officials charged Miami Heat player Terry Rozier with wire fraud and money laundering counts related to his on-court performance.

Maryland Del. Julie Palakovich Carr, a Democrat who has sponsored legislation to codify a 2024 ban on player-specific prop bets on college sports, said her bill would protect college athletes from pressure and harassment from gamblers who have a stake in their performance.

“I think the fears are real that have been raised by the NCAA about athletes being subject to harassment or potentially to engage in bad behaviors,” Palakovich Carr said in an interview. “We just want to remove all of those pressures.”

Some sports leagues have been among the first to call for an end to prop bets. In January, NCAA President Charlie Baker — who filed legislation to legalize sports betting when he served as governor of Massachusetts — urged state gambling commissions to eliminate prop betting.

“The [NCAA] has and will continue to aggressively pursue sports betting violations in college athletics using a layered integrity monitoring program that covers over 22,000 contests, but we still need the remaining states and regulators to eliminate threats to integrity to better protect athletes and leagues from integrity risks and predatory bettors,” Baker said in a statement last month.

Indiana Sen. Ron Alting, a Republican, introduced legislation this year specifically aimed at college athletes. His legislation would prohibit college athletes from placing prop bets on the sport that athlete plays.

But other leagues have signed lucrative deals with some of the nation’s largest gambling interests. The NBA and the NFL partner with DraftKings and FanDuel, the two largest mobile betting operators. Specific MLB teams partner with gambling outlets.

“It’s leading to some real problems with the integrity of the games,” New Jersey’s Moriarty said. “We get all these sports leagues that have bought into this, and now they’re making a fortune in cahoots with these betting apps, and yet they should really be safeguarding their products.”