A bipartisan package before the Pennsylvania House would impose wager and loss limits on online gambling, ban credit-card funding across several gambling products and create tougher rules for operators dealing with self-excluded customers.
House Bills 2879, 2875 and 2874, led by Reps. Tarik Khan and Jamie Flick, were referred to the House Gaming Oversight Committee on Oct. 21. The measures remain proposals and would require approval by both legislative chambers and the governor to become law.
HB 2879 would set a $2 maximum online-casino wager for customers aged 21 to 25 and a $5 limit for those older than 25. It would also require customers to choose daily and monthly loss limits before their first wager. A lower limit could take effect immediately, while an increase would be subject to a Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs cooling-off period.
The bill would impose mandatory lockouts once statutory loss thresholds are reached. Customers aged 21 to 25 would be blocked after losing $750 in 24 hours or $2,500 in 30 days; the thresholds for older customers would be $1,500 and $5,000. The resulting exclusion would last 24 hours for a daily threshold and 30 days for a monthly one.
Other proposed controls include a 15-minute delay between a deposit and a wager, except for the first bet on a new account, and a ban on games resolved in under 15 seconds and on autoplay. The bill would also prohibit microbets on individual plays or actions during live sporting events, and certain proposition bets involving multiple outcomes from one event.
The wider restrictions described in reporting on HB 2879 include a two-deposit maximum in any 24-hour period, a $5,000 deposit ceiling over 180 days unless an operator completes an affordability check, and a default two-hour daily limit on online gambling activity unless the player chooses a lower limit. It would prohibit VIP or loyalty schemes that assign player hosts or reward greater play, deposits or losses.
The measure would further bar push notifications seeking bets or deposits, sign-up bonuses and bonus bets, according to Casino.org. That report said it would also prohibit terms such as “risk-free,” restrict gambling advertising between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. and during live sports broadcasts, and bar advertising on college campuses and near schools. Opponents have argued that restrictions of that scale could give offshore websites and apps a marketing advantage.
HB 2875 would prohibit credit cards for fantasy-contest accounts, iLottery purchases, online-casino deposits and wagers, and sports betting. HB 2879 separately specifies that online-gambling wagers could be funded only by ACH debit, wire transfer or physical check.
HB 2874 would require licensed gaming entities to remove self-excluded customers from direct-marketing lists and update their systems at least every 48 hours. They would have to refuse deposits, wagers, rewards and withdrawals from people on the exclusion list, subject to existing-law exceptions. Marketing to a self-excluded person would become a criminal offence, carrying a proposed first-violation fine of $300,000 to $600,000.
Pennsylvania already allows people to request exclusion for one year, five years or life. Existing Gaming Control Board regulations require slot-machine licensees to deny gaming privileges and stop targeted mailings and other promotional materials to such people.
Khan said the package followed a statewide study that found operators used predatory practices to keep customers betting while losing money. The Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission’s 2026 study examined gambling-related harms and made recommendations on credit-card payments, play limits, advertising, in-game betting and VIP programmes.
The legislation arrives as online participation and revenue have grown. Penn State’s 2025 assessment found that up to 30% of Pennsylvania adults had engaged in some form of online gambling in the prior year, compared with 20% in the comparable 2024 assessment. More than half of calls to the state’s 1-800-GAMBLER hotline concerned problematic online gambling.
The Gaming Control Board reported $7.05 billion in overall gaming revenue and $3.1 billion in tax revenue during fiscal year 2025-26. The state had 22 online casino-type gaming sites and 11 online sports-wagering sites in that period.
