Congressman, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, wants facial recognition to verify age of bettors, predictions users
Rep. Josh Gottheimer is leading a legislative effort in Congress to ensure prediction markets and online sportsbooks to verify they accept only age-appropriate users via facial recognition.
On Wednesday, Gottheimer (D-NJ) introduced the Facial Recognition to Protect Children Act, a measure that would require prediction markets and licensed online sports betting operators to deploy facial recognition technology to verify the age of users who want to trade or wager.
Gottheimer introduced the bipartisan bill amid concern regarding the availability of trading and gambling to consumers under the age of 18. According to data provided by Common Sense Media, about 40% of boys aged 14 to 17 have gambled in the past year.
“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,” said Gottheimer when introducing the measure this week. “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 Facial Recognition to Protect Children Act takes multiple steps to protect youth:
- The child protection bill requires sportsbooks and prediction markets to use facial recognition technology when logging into a platform or before placing a bet.
- The facial recognition technology is required to read facial structures and patterns to estimate the age of users without using biometric information.
Under Gottheimer’s measure, the facial recognition technology used by sportsbooks and prediction markets does not store a person’s identity.
Facial recognition bill backed by prediction market
Gottheimer’s bill has garnered support from Kalshi.
The company’s CEO, Tarek Mansour, joined Gottheimer in introducing the measure this week. In addition to Kalshi, the act is receiving support from ParentsRISE, a national group that supports parents who have lost children due to the harms of social media.
Several lawmakers, including Rep. Ritchie Torres, also voiced their support for requiring prediction markets and sportsbooks to verify users’ ages using facial recognition.
“Online gambling and prediction markets are expanding rapidly, but our guardrails to protect minors haven’t kept pace. Right now, the honor system is failing our kids, allowing underage users to bypass basic age restrictions with zero accountability,” said Torres. “By implementing proven facial recognition technology, we can safeguard children from the risks of underage gambling while protecting user privacy.”
In addition to Torres, Gottheimer’s bill is also backed by Reps. Van Drew and Kristen McDonald Rivet, Jimmy Panetta, Darren Soto, Tom Souzzi and Bruce Westerman.
Gottheimer has also introduced other youth-centric measures this current legislative session, including the Parents Decide Act. The measure requires technology companies to verify a user’s age when a phone or tablet is being onboarded for the very first time.
Prediction markets legislation en vogue
Torres is backing Gottheimer’s measure after introducing legislation centered around prediction markets. Earlier this year, he introduced the Public Integrity in Financial Prediction Markets Act. The measure aims to ban federal elected officials, political appointees, and executive branch employees from trading event contracts tied to government policy or action. The bill was introduced in January but has stalled.
Similar pushes to prevent government officials from trading certain event contracts or providing insider information are already in motion in multiple states.
In March, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order that prevents government officials from using or sharing nonpublic information for insider trading purposes. The trading includes stock markets and prediction markets.
Meanwhile, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed an executive order earlier this month that bans executive branch employees from disclosing or using government information when trading with prediction markets. The order also bans officials from helping others to trade.
https://sbcamericas.com/2026/07/17/gambling-facial-recognition-bill/