Brian Schatz Wants Ban On Micro Prop Bets In New Federal Bill

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz is preparing a federal bill that would ban micro prop bets and give the Federal Trade Commission power to act against companies helping illegal offshore sportsbooks.

Good to Know

• The bill would outlaw bets on isolated moments inside games.
• The FTC could pursue payment processors working with illegal offshore sportsbooks.
• Schatz raised the plan during a Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing on sports betting.

Schatz wants federal enforcement to hit the companies that help illegal sportsbooks move money.

The Hawaii senator said the FTC could go after payment processors that knowingly work with offshore operators. That approach would not fix every gambling problem, he said, but it would give regulators a clearer route into a market that often sits outside U.S. licensing systems.

“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,” said Schatz, a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee.

“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.’”

Micro prop betting would also face a direct ban under the proposal. Those wagers focus on small in-game events, such as one pitch, one possession, or one player action, rather than a final score or broader game result.

Schatz said that structure creates both integrity and gambling harm concerns.

“Micro prop [bets are] insidious in that [they] can be manipulated by a player or anyone else,” said Schatz. “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.”

The hearing came as lawmakers reviewed sports betting growth, prediction markets, offshore sportsbooks, and consumer risks. Recent NBA and MLB betting cases have also raised concerns over wagers tied to single-player actions and nonpublic information.