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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is pushing for tougher guardrails in the country’s biggest online sports betting market, calling for biometric age checks and tighter rules around how sportsbooks use AI to market bets.
In her State of the State agenda, Hochul said she will direct the New York State Gaming Commission to evaluate tools such as facial recognition and thumbprint scanners to stop people under 21 from opening sportsbook accounts or using someone else’s login.
The move follows what state officials describe as a rise in underage access, often through accounts owned by parents, relatives, or friends. A commission source told ESPN that adults who allow underage betting access can be banned from the platform.
A biometric check to block underage sign-ups
Hochul’s office is pitching biometrics as an enforcement upgrade, not a branding exercise. The state already requires bettors to be 21, but regulators say enforcement becomes harder when someone else’s account serves as the entry point.
Her plan would have the Gaming Commission study which identity and age technologies actually work at sign-up and at login, and how they could be deployed without creating obvious loopholes.
Hochul framed the proposal as part of a broader push to reduce youth exposure to online harms, including gambling. “From day one, one of my highest priorities has been keeping kids and our most vulnerable safe in a rapidly changing digital world, and that includes risks posed by online gambling,” Hochul said in a statement to ESPN.
New restrictions aimed at AI-driven offers
Hochul is also seeking limits on how sportsbooks use AI to target customers with promotions.
Her agenda targets personalized offers designed to keep people betting longer than they planned, calling for restrictions on AI-driven marketing that “keep individuals gambling beyond their intended limit.”
That proposal would land in a market where bonuses and tailored offers are already a key acquisition and retention tool, especially during major sports windows. If the state moves forward, operators may face new compliance requirements regarding what can be automated, how offers can be targeted, and what counts as excessive nudging.
More treatment, and a long-term public health study
Alongside enforcement, Hochul’s package leans into public health.
She wants legislation that ensures gambling disorder treatment is covered by insurance, and she is calling for the creation of a Gambling Health Institute. Her plan also recommends a 10-year statewide study to track gambling-related health trends and measure whether prevention efforts work.
The message is clear: New York is treating gambling harm more like an ongoing health issue than a side effect of legalization.
Operators signal openness on age tech
Sportsbooks, at least publicly, are not pushing back on the age-tech concept.
The Sports Betting Alliance, a trade group representing major operators, said it is ready to work with the state on “advanced age and identity technologies.” SBA president Joe Maloney added that the group also wants to help “expose and eliminate offshore and illegal actors” that ignore age rules and target vulnerable users.
A crackdown arrives in the biggest U.S. market
New York launched legal mobile sports betting in January 2022 and quickly became the top U.S. market by handle. The state gaming commission reported about $26.3 billion wagered with New York sportsbooks in 2025.
The proposed policies are aimed at licensed online sportsbooks. But the state has also moved against sports-outcome prediction products, issuing cease-and-desist orders to companies that offer trading tied to sports results.
Hochul outlined the initiatives ahead of her address to lawmakers, setting up what could become one of the most closely watched state-level debates of 2026: how far the largest sports betting market is willing to go on identity checks, marketing limits, and the public-health response that comes with a mature betting industry.
Source: ESPN
