Representative Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) unveiled legislation on Wednesday that would compel prediction markets and online sportsbooks to implement facial recognition technology to verify users' ages, targeting a loophole that allows minors to place bets or trade on these platforms.
The bill, named the Facial Recognition to Protect Children Act, mandates that platforms use facial recognition to estimate a user's age by analyzing facial structure and patterns at login or before any wager is placed. Gottheimer, joined by Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour at the announcement, argued that current safeguards are inadequate. “Right now, kids can too easily log into a parent’s or sibling’s account and bet real money,” he said, adding that without such checks, “we’re asking our kids to self-police their way past a system built entirely on the honor code.”
The legislation has garnered bipartisan support, including from Rep. Tom Suozzi (R-N.Y.), who appeared alongside Gottheimer. Mansour voiced enthusiasm for the proposal, stating in a release, “Protecting kids should be a no brainer and is a top priority at Kalshi. Beyond what’s required of us, we already self-regulate and have a suite of measures in place to keep minors off our platform. But this can’t just be one company’s responsibility — it has to be an industry standard.”
The bill also wins backing from Parents Rise, an advocacy group founded by parents who lost children to social media harms. In a statement, the group expressed relief that lawmakers “see the threat of this next wave of products engineered for compulsive use.” The measure marks one of the first legislative efforts to specifically address child safety in the rapidly expanding prediction market sector, which has faced scrutiny over its age-verification practices.
Kalshi earlier this year launched a kids’ online safety initiative, making facial ID the default for users with that feature enabled on their phones. The company also encourages parents to enable two-factor authentication and has introduced a feature to detect unauthorized logins, along with requiring selfies for higher-risk users as an extra layer of protection.
This push comes amid broader regulatory scrutiny of prediction markets. In a related development, Congresswoman Dina Titus has targeted a prediction market loophole as the CFTC struggles to regulate, and insider betting has tainted prediction markets, leaving watchdogs scrambling. Additionally, Goldman Sachs has banned employee bets on stocks and elections in a prediction market crackdown.
The legislation arrives as the House advances a child online safety package, though a Senate standoff over a key provision threatens its fate. Gottheimer’s bill specifically targets the intersection of technology and gambling, requiring platforms to adopt biometric tools that go beyond standard age gates.
