# 119-s-4115: BETS OFF Act

119-s-4115, BETS OFF Act, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Sen. Murphy, Christopher [D-CT] (D-CT); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-08-11).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-4115
- As of: 2026-08-11
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-s-4115
- Congress: 119
- Title: BETS OFF Act
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2026-03-17
- Sponsor: Sen. Murphy, Christopher [D-CT] (D-CT)
- Cosponsors: 2
- Policy area: Finance and Financial Sector
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-08-11

## 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. - 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.

## Cosponsors (2)

- Sen. Hickenlooper, John W. [D-CO] (D-CO), 2026-03-17T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Kim, Andy [D-NJ] (D-NJ), 2026-04-15T00:00:00.000Z

## Provisions PRIA read

- Effective date and severability rules: benefit, low. 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.
- No exchange trading of event contracts: cost, medium. 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 sim…
- Ban on bets about terrorism and war: cost, low. 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 kn…
- Stronger criminal and payment rules for betting: cost, low. 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 subjec…

## Related bills

- 119-s-3990: PrEP Access and Coverage Act of 2026
- 119-s-3869: Healthy Families Act
- 119-s-51: Washington, D.C. Admission Act
- 119-s-5108: Right to IVF Act of 2026
- 119-s-1503: Equality Act
- 119-s-2295: Child Care for Working Families Act

## Sources
- [119-s-4115 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/4115)

## Related
- [119-s-3990: PrEP Access and Coverage Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-3990)
- [119-s-3869: Healthy Families Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-3869)
- [119-s-51: Washington, D.C. Admission Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-51)
- [119-s-5108: Right to IVF Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5108)
- [119-s-1503: Equality Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1503)
- [119-s-2295: Child Care for Working Families Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-2295)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-4115 (as of 2026-08-11).