A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has introduced a proposal that would require online sportsbooks and prediction markets to use facial age verification before allowing users to place bets or trades. The measure says the platforms cannot retain users' identities or biometric data. But the full text hasn't been released, leaving key details like enforcement and accuracy standards unclear.
What the proposal says
The proposal targets a growing corner of the internet: legal sports betting and prediction markets that let users wager on everything from football games to election outcomes. Under the plan, any platform that accepts bets or trades would have to verify a user's age through facial recognition before granting access. The lawmakers explicitly state that the platforms must not store the user's identity or biometric information after the check is done. That means the system would have to run the verification in real time and then discard the data.
The group hasn't named specific companies, but the rule would apply broadly to any online sportsbook or prediction market operating in the U.S. That includes major players like DraftKings, FanDuel, and newer entrants in the prediction market space. The proposal doesn't specify how the verification would work technically — whether it would use a government ID scan plus a selfie, or rely on a third-party service.
What's missing from the public record
The full text of the proposal hasn't been published yet. That leaves several questions unanswered. For one, how would the government enforce the requirement? Would there be fines for platforms that skip the check? Would users have a way to appeal if the facial recognition system falsely rejects them? The lawmakers haven't said.
Accuracy is another open question. Facial recognition systems have a well-documented history of higher error rates for people with darker skin tones and for women. The proposal doesn't mention any testing or certification standards to ensure the technology works equally well for all users. Nor does it address what happens if a user doesn't have a smartphone with a camera, or if they object to being scanned on privacy grounds.
The no-retention rule is a nod to privacy concerns, but it's not clear how it would be audited. Without a published enforcement mechanism, it's hard to know whether platforms would actually delete the data or just say they do.
Why the push now
Online sports betting has exploded since the Supreme Court cleared the way for states to legalize it in 2018. Today, more than 30 states allow some form of sports wagering. Prediction markets, where users trade contracts on future events, have also grown, with platforms like Polymarket drawing millions of users during the 2024 election cycle.
Age verification is a persistent problem. Minors have found ways to bet using stolen or borrowed IDs. The lawmakers' proposal aims to close that loophole with a biometric check that's harder to fake than a simple date-of-birth entry. But the trade-off is that facial recognition brings its own set of risks — false positives, false negatives, and privacy concerns.
The bipartisan nature of the proposal suggests there's appetite on both sides of the aisle for tighter rules. But without the full text, it's impossible to know how far the requirements would reach or what penalties would apply.
What happens next
The proposal is in its early stages. The lawmakers haven't announced a timeline for releasing the full text or for moving the bill through committee. Until that text is public, the industry and privacy advocates are left guessing about the specifics. The key unresolved question: can facial age verification be both accurate and privacy-protective at scale, and who will be responsible when it fails?
