Schatz set to introduce legislation to ban bets on individual moments within games

During a Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing on sports betting, US Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) discussed with gaming experts vulnerabilities created by micro prop bets in sports and the need to address illegal, offshore sports books that harm sports integrity.

Schatz is set to introduce legislation to outlaw micro prop bets in games and provide the Federal Trade Commission with authority to go after companies that knowingly facilitate illegal, offshore gambling.

“Micro prop [bets are] insidious in that [they] can be manipulated by a player or anyone else,” said Schatz, a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee. “The more micro you get, the more insidious it is, from an integrity standpoint. But it also taps into the addictive, manic, algorithmically-driven problem that we’re dealing with. I think this particular problem is especially acute and needs to be dealt with immediately.”

On addressing offshore sports books, Schatz said, “We think we, legislatively, have a pathway here. It doesn’t solve every problem, and it certainly doesn’t solve every problem as it relates to the challenges that individuals and society [are] facing with gambling. But if you empower the FTC to go after the payment processors, then they would have a perfect right to go and say, ‘You may not work with these offshore shops if they are not complying with federal law having to do with micro prop bets.’”