BETS OFF Act
Sponsored By: Senator Christopher Murphy
Introduced
Summary
Creates a federal ban on wagering on "specified events," including terrorism, assassination, and war, and bars bets on other nonfinancial events tied to government action or predetermined outcomes. The bill defines "wager," carves out normal insurance and certain federal insurance programs, and would make it unlawful to place, accept, or facilitate these wagers.
Show full summary
- Individuals and betting platforms would be prohibited from placing, accepting, or facilitating bets on the listed categories of events. The bill keeps certain insurance and federal insurance programs from being treated as wagers.
- Registered commodity markets and clearinghouses would be barred from listing or clearing transactions tied to those specified events because the Commodity Exchange Act would be amended to prohibit such transactions on registered entities.
- Federal enforcement and reporting rules would reach these new prohibitions by amending criminal and financial statutes, and the Attorney General would be authorized to seek injunctive relief in federal court against violators.
The bill would take effect 30 days after enactment.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
4 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 3 costs, 0 mixed.
No exchange trading of event contracts
If enacted, the bill would bar registered exchanges and clearinghouses from listing or clearing any agreement, contract, swap, index, measure, or data tied to a specified event. That would prevent exchange-traded contracts or cleared transactions that reference terrorism, assassination, war, or similar specified events. The change would apply regardless of other listing or clearing rules that might otherwise allow such products.
Effective date and severability rules
If enacted, the bill would take effect 30 days after the date of enactment. It would also include a severability rule saying that if any provision or application is held unconstitutional, the remainder of the Act and its other applications would stay in effect.
Ban on bets about terrorism and war
If enacted, this bill would make it unlawful for any person to place, accept, or facilitate a wager about a "specified event." The bill would define specified events to include acts of terrorism, an assassination, a war, and certain non-financial government actions whose outcome is controlled or known in advance. It would define "wager" as staking something of value on an outcome but would exclude certain insurance with a lawful insurable interest, foreign insurance for risks outside the U.S., reinsurance of such risks, and federal programs like the Terrorism Insurance Program, the National Flood Insurance Program, and the Federal crop insurance program. The Attorney General would be able to seek injunctive relief in federal court against violators.
Stronger criminal and payment rules for betting
If enacted, the bill would add bets on the specified events into several federal enforcement laws. It would treat such bets as unlawful internet gambling for payment-blocking rules, expand the illegal gambling-business statute to cover them, and make travel or transport that aids such wagers subject to racketeering travel rules. These changes would give prosecutors, regulators, and payment processors more tools to block payments and pursue civil or criminal cases related to those wagers.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Christopher Murphy
CT • D
Cosponsors
John Hickenlooper
CO • D
Sponsored 3/17/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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