US Lawmakers Propose Facial Recognition Age Checks for Sportsbooks, Prediction Markets

U.S. Representative Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) introduced bipartisan legislation on July 15 that would require online sportsbooks and prediction markets to use facial recognition technology to verify users’ ages before they can place a bet or make a trade. The bill, called the Facial Recognition to Protect Children Act, arrives as prediction markets have exploded in popularity and lawmakers face growing pressure to close gaps that let minors access real-money betting platforms.

The legislation would require operators to estimate a user’s age by reading facial structure and patterns, either at login or immediately before a wager or trade is placed. Gottheimer’s office says the technology would not store a user’s identity or personal biometric information, addressing one of the more obvious privacy concerns tied to facial-recognition mandates.

Why Lawmakers Say the Honor System Isn’t Working

Gottheimer framed the bill as a response to how easily minors can currently bypass age restrictions. “We’re asking our kids to self-police their way past a system built entirely on the honor code. A kid can log into a parent’s, an older sibling’s, or a friend’s account and place a bet with no verification at all. Nobody checks. That’s it. That’s the whole system,” he said. “We wouldn’t accept that at a casino in Las Vegas. We shouldn’t accept it on the phone in our kid’s back pocket.”

The numbers behind the push are significant. Gottheimer’s office cites figures showing Americans wagered roughly $160 billion on sports last year, generating about $16 billion in industry revenue. Citing research from Common Sense Media, the release notes that 36% of boys ages 11 to 17 reported gambling in the past year, a figure that climbs to 40% among boys ages 14 to 17. The bill’s backers also point to more than 80 reported cases of underage betting in Iowa and more than 400 underage sportsbook accounts identified in Tennessee in 2024 alone — evidence, they argue, that current safeguards aren’t catching enough underage users before money changes hands.

Kalshi’s Backing Signals a Broader Industry Shift

The bill is notably backed by prediction market operator Kalshi, whose CEO Tarek Mansour joined Gottheimer for the announcement. “Protecting kids should be a no-brainer and is a top priority at Kalshi,” Mansour said. “Beyond what’s required of us, we already self-regulate and have a suite of measures in place to keep minors off our platform. But this can’t just be one company’s responsibility — it has to be an industry standard.”

Kalshi says it has already rolled out several child-safety measures, including making facial identification the default verification method for users who have it enabled on their phones, encouraging two-factor authentication, and adding account-monitoring tools plus selfie verification for higher-risk logins. Having an operator publicly champion mandatory regulation — rather than resist it — is a notable dynamic, particularly as prediction markets continue to draw scrutiny from state regulators and gambling-industry watchdogs over whether they function as unregulated sportsbooks.

Advocacy group ParentsRISE, which also backs the bill, tied the urgency to how deeply integrated these platforms have become in everyday apps. “We’re grateful to see action taken to address the harms of predatory betting apps and prediction markets to children,” the group said. “Meta has already struck a partnership integrating Kalshi’s real-money betting markets into Threads. We are glad these members see the threat of this next wave of products engineered for compulsive use.”

Bipartisan Cosponsors and What Comes Next

The bill carries cosponsors from both parties, including Representatives Jeff Van Drew, Nick LaLota, Kristen McDonald Rivet, Jimmy Panetta, Darren Soto, Tom Suozzi, Ritchie Torres and Bruce Westerman. Van Drew, who joined Gottheimer for the announcement, emphasized the stakes for families. “Prediction markets are becoming more popular, and we need to be realistic about the risks that can come with that for our children,” he said. “Kids should not be able to get onto these platforms and start placing bets. This bill puts another protection in place to help stop that from happening and gives parents some added peace of mind.”

The proposal is among the first pieces of federal legislation to directly target child-safety gaps in prediction markets specifically, rather than treating them as a subset of traditional sports betting regulation. Whether it gains traction will likely depend on how the broader industry — beyond Kalshi — responds, and whether other operators are willing to accept a federal facial-recognition mandate as the price of continued growth. For now, it puts age verification technology squarely at the center of the conversation about how far platforms should go to keep the fastest-growing segment of the betting and trading world out of the hands of minors.

As oversight of both sportsbooks and prediction markets intensifies, bettors researching where and how to wager legally can review state-by-state rules on the Sports Betting Legal hub, while those exploring the prediction market space can compare platforms through resources like the Kalshi vs. Polymarket guide.