New York could do more to help people struggling with gambling problems. A recent NY sports betting bill seeks to do just that.
On April 16, 2025, New York State Assemblymember Robert Carroll introduced Assembly Bill A7962, legislation that would establish additional safeguards on online sports betting.
Many of the New York legislation’s provisions appeared earlier in the federal SAFE Bet Act, which has been under consideration on Capitol Hill since 2024. The SAFE Bet Act has become a model for states looking to better protect consumers from the online betting industry.
Carroll is a 38-year-old Democrat from Brooklyn who has been in office since 2017.
His proposal would cap customer sports betting wagers to $5,000 in a 24-hour period. Like the SAFE Bet Act, New York bettors couldn’t deposit money into a single sportsbook more than five separate times in 24 hours.
A problem here for people struggling with sports gambling addiction: There are nine state-sanctioned online sportsbooks in New York. The bill doesn’t require betting companies to work together to monitor or limit a user’s wagering.
It’s worth noting that wagers are distinct from losses. A sports gambler might not have lost money after $5,000 worth of wagers, although it’s likely to be the case.
New York’s Gambling Addiction Crisis
A recent survey conducted by the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) found that five percent of New York adults, or 668,000 individuals, exhibited problem gambling behaviors within the past year.
Meanwhile, a survey of seventh through 12th grade students revealed that 10 percent, or 140,000 students, showed signs of problem gambling in the past 12 months.
Separate studies have shown at least 30% of online sports bettors experience problems.
Last month, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul named March Problem Gambling Awareness Month.
NY Sports Betting Bill Ad Restrictions
The legislation would also prohibit NY sportsbooks from “certain advertisement practices” using words or phrases such as “odds boost”, “bonus bet”, “no sweat” and “any other similar term.”
Policymaker scrutiny around language used in online gambling advertisements hasn’t abated in recent years, even after the industry stopped using controversial terms such as “risk-free” bet.
The bill would not ban so-called odds boosts or bonus bet promotions, which have become almost standard across the mobile betting app sector. Gamblers could still see and claim those incentives inside the betting app.
If the bill became law, it’s unclear if betting app affiliate marketing websites would stop using the aforementioned bonus language in NY content.
Also notably, the legislation proposes to prohibit sportsbooks from “provid[ing] information on how to place a sports wager or how sports wagers work” as part of their advertisements.
Sports gambling ads couldn’t “occur between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. local time” or “during live sport events,” the New York legislation also stated.
Under the NY sports betting bill, credit cards couldn’t be used to fund a sports betting account.
New York allowed the launch of state-sanctioned sports gambling apps in January 2022. Since the inception of sports betting in the state, the industry has taken $65.4 billion in wagers, siphoning more than $5.7 billion from users, according to Legal Sports Report.
NY Problem Gambling Legislation in 2025
Also under consideration in 2025 in Albany is a bill to establish a New York Problem Gambling Advisory Council and legislation to ban betting app push notifications.
Another proposal seeks to address wagering limits, specifically the controversial industry practice of limiting some sports bettors following winning bets.
Lawmakers are also considering a proposal to double the distributions for problem gambling education and treatment purposes to $12 million, legislation to standardize the legal gambling age as 21, and a bill to place addiction warning messages inside betting apps.
Youth education, in particular, has momentum across the country. In 2025, Maryland, for example, passed a law to boost awareness of problem gambling in youth suicide.
New York policymakers have also looked at expanding online gambling in 2025. Legislation to allow the state-sanctioned sports betting apps to offer online casino games has been considered. Some in New York also want to approve online lottery gambling.
For sports betting expansion, another bill would broaden what prop bets are allowed, and another proposal would seek to increase the number of licensed betting apps.
It’s an era of massive change for gambling in New York.
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