SAFE Bet Act: Federal Minimum Standards for Sports Betting Move Closer to Legislative Reality
The Supporting Affordability and Fairness with Every Bet Act has been circulating in Congress since its introduction by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Representative Paul Tonko (D-NY), but the May 20 Senate Commerce Subcommittee hearing gave the legislation its most prominent platform yet. For the first time, the bill's core provisions were examined against real-world industry testimony in a setting that drew bipartisan engagement from senators who had, just days earlier, watched Minnesota become the first state to ban prediction markets outright.
What the SAFE Bet Act Would Do
The legislation operates through a federal minimum standards framework: states that wish to continue offering legal sports betting must certify compliance with federal requirements. The substantive provisions span five major areas:
Advertising restrictions. The SAFE Bet Act would prohibit gambling operators from running advertisements between 8am and 10pm — covering the entire broadcast window for professional and college sport — and would ban gambling ads during live sports events, regardless of time. This provision would end the category of advertising that has made DraftKings and FanDuel among the most visible brands in US sports media.
Deposit limits. Operators would be prohibited from accepting more than five deposits from a single customer in a 24-hour period. Credit card deposits would be banned outright, bringing US standards into line with the United Kingdom, where credit card gambling deposits have been prohibited since 2020.
Affordability checks. Operators would be required to conduct affordability checks — verification of a customer's financial means relative to their wagering activity — before accepting wagers exceeding $1,000 within a 24-hour period.
Prop bet restrictions. The bill would establish a national ban on proposition bets involving college and amateur athletes — directly addressing the game-fixing concerns raised during the Senate hearing's integrity segment.
AI marketing prohibition. Operators would be prohibited from using artificial intelligence systems that analyse individual gambling behaviour to generate personalised promotional offers or betting product recommendations.
Why It Matters
If enacted, the SAFE Bet Act would represent the most significant federal intervention in sports betting since PASPA's repeal in 2018. The advertising restrictions alone — banning gambling ads during the broadcast windows when most live sports are watched — would materially impact the US sports betting customer acquisition economics that DraftKings, FanDuel, and BetMGM have built their market share strategies around. For prediction market operators, the bill's implicit framing of event contracts as betting products subject to state licensing requirements is equally significant: if the SAFE Bet Act's framework passes, it would undercut the CFTC's federal preemption argument at the legislative level.
Illia Lisovskyy
Senior Editor
Member of the iGaming Pulse editorial team. Covering industry news, analysis, and B2B developments across the global iGaming sector.
