New Kentucky sports betting legislation aims to protect residents from gambling-related harms and prediction markets offering a stock-market-style form of wagering under federal oversight.
House Bill 904, the Wagering Consumer Protection Act, was introduced on March 4 by Representative Michael Meredith and Representative Matthew Koch, both Republicans.
Kentucky legalized online sports betting in 2023 as one of the few states with a legal age of 18. The bill would raise the legal age to 21.
Prediction Markets
The bill appears to prohibit Kentucky sports betting apps from participating in prediction markets.
Under Kentucky’s legal sports betting framework, gambling apps must partner with a licensed track. The legislation would specifically bar tracks and associations from contracting with companies in the prediction markets space.
In recent months, FanDuel, DraftKings, and Fanatics launched prediction markets products with sports betting in states where the activity hasn’t been legalized. Other leading prediction markets include Kalshi and Polymarket, but neither holds a Kentucky license.
Numerous states have introduced legislation or taken legal action involving prediction markets in recent months.
Kentucky Sports Betting Player Props
The bill would prohibit proposition bets on individual players participating in collegiate sports at Kentucky colleges and universities.
The provision could protect student-athletes from abuse.
Player prop bets also fuel parlay bets and in-game wagering, among the most addictive forms of sports betting.
Other KY Bill Provisions
The Kentucky legislation would authorize and regulate fantasy betting contests.
The bill would also “modernize” wagering within the horse racing industry by allowing fixed-odds betting and requiring updates to wagering technology to ensure bettors have “commercially reasonable” access to betting odds.
Additionally, the legislation would clarify where charitable gambling corporations may offer electronic game tickets and electronic pull-tab devices. It would outline an administrative process for resolving regulatory actions taken against charity gambling license holders.
Under the proposal, charities would regain greater control over their gambling operations. The bill would shift certain licensing and operational controls directly back to these organizations.
The bill includes additional consumer protections for charity gambling. These measures would raise the minimum age for charitable gambling participation to 21 and establish standards governing where charitable gambling machines may be placed in locations where minors may be present.
