Pennsylvania lawmakers are proposing blocking access to all sports betting and online casino platforms on school campuses. 

Representative Jason Ortitay said he intends to introduce the legislation in honor of Ray Mikesell, who killed himself after struggling with gambling addiction. 

The legislation would require igaming and sports betting operators to use geospatial technologies to prevent registered players from accessing their platforms while physically located on school property.

“This is a common-sense protection for our children, and it honors the memory of a young man whose loss should not be in vain,” Ortitay said in a press release, before using fellow lawmakers to co-spnsor the bill. 

Gambling Addiction Started In School

Ray Mikesell committed suicide in 2024 when faced with an eviction notice from his home in South Fayette. His financial problems had been mounting due to years of gambling, which began when he was a high school student. 

“That addiction followed him for years and ultimately cost him his life,” Ortitay stated. “His father has asked that we act so that no other family endures what his family has endured. As he told me, if this legislation helps even one person, it is worth it.”

A recent report said that as many as 1 in 3 American boys aged 11 to 17 years old are gambling, with video games acting as the top way youths encounter gambling-like activities.

Lawmakers Want Operators To Take Responsibility

Lawmakers have also demanded that betting companies detail what measures they are taking to address issues of problem and underage gambling.

Last month, a group of five Democrats sent a letter to the CEOs of 10 major betting and prediction market operators expressing their concerns about young Americans’ gambling.

The letter references multiple ads run by the companies, which the lawmakers see as problematic. For example, a Kalshi TikTok ad that included the tagline: “I was about to be unable to pay my rent, but I got two years of rent through Kalshi’s predictions. It’s amazing!”

Kalshi has stopped running this ad and has signed up to the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG), claiming it is committed to responsible practices. It does, however, continue to allow 18-year-olds to effectively gamble on sports in Pennsylvania, despite the legal betting age being 21. 

This ad is particularly poignant to Mikesell’s story as his death came at a time when he was unable to pay rent due to gambling problems. To suggest that gambling is a way out of financial difficulty, rather than the route towards it, is irresponsible, say the lawmakers. 

Gambling groups have invested heavily in supporting Pennsylvania politicians they believe would oppose additional restrictions on the industry.

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In the UK and the US, authorities are stepping up efforts to ban advertising that targets minors. The UK banned two ads featuring sports stars, while the US has introduced the GAME Act to prohibit ads that appeal to under-18s.

The question of what is deemed appealing to minors was partly answered by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) in the UK last week. The agency ruled on two ads that featured well-known soccer players. 

In one instance, an ad featuring ex-Arsenal forward Thierry Henry was deemed to be acceptable. The ASA said that the 48-year-old, who retired in 2012, “was not likely to be of strong appeal.” Therefore, a Betway ad featuring Henry was approved. 

However, an Oddschecker ad featuring current soccer stars Erling Haaland and Harry Kane was deemed too appealing to minors. The ASA banned the ads, stating that these players “do have strong appeal to those under 18 years of age.”

What Are The UK Rules?

The case in the UK shows the fine line in what is deemed acceptable. A case could be made for Henry to also have an appeal to minors. The former player regularly features in soccer coverage in the US and UK. 

The ASA said the rules in the UK prohibit gambling ads from:  

• Being addressed to or otherwise directed at children or young people 
• Presenting gambling as a solution to personal or financial problems 
• Featuring sports personalities or celebrities of strong appeal to under-18s 
• Encouraging irresponsible gambling behavior like chasing loses or solitary play

Who is of strong appeal to under-18s becomes open to interpretation. Generally, current players are deemed to hold a strong appeal, thus the Haaland and Kane ads were banned. 

US Wants Stricter Rules

In the US, studies have claimed that as many as 1 in 3 teenagers are gambling, with loot boxes in video games blamed as an entry point. 

Earlier this month, Senators Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced the Gaming Advertisement to Minors Enforcement (GAME) Act. 

“Sportsbooks and prediction markets are treating young people like a gold rush, flooding the internet with advertisements and promotions to hook them on gambling when they’re young,” said Senator Blumenthal in a press release. 

“High schoolers, even middle schoolers, are now gambling on their phones as never before, losing real money and creating life-altering addiction. The GAME Act would create a nationwide ban on targeted advertising of gambling to kids, backed with the force of punishing fines.”

Limited Scope Of GAME Act

The bill, however, only makes it illegal for an operator to directly provide a minor with a link to a sports betting or prediction market platform. 

It does not appear to contain any general advertising that could be considered appealing to minors, such as the UK rules. 

The bill states: “The term ‘targeted advertisement directed to a minor that promotes a sports gambling platform’ means an advertisement or any other effort to market a sports gambling platform that is directed to a minor or a connected device of a minor that an online advertising provider links or possesses the information to be able to link to a minor.”

So, if a gambling company somehow has detailed information about a minor, they cannot send them a direct advert for a gambling site. 

Repeat offenders can be referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ), which could impose financial penalties of up to $100,000 for each ad shown to a minor that promotes sports gambling. 

Gambling Being Gamified To Attract Young Users

Gaming companies have come under fire recently for featuring gambling-like mechanisms in their games. Valve, Roblox, and Fortnite have all been named in multiple lawsuits alleging that they encourage young people to gamble. 

Equally, gambling companies are being blamed for gamifying betting. Gamified features such as leaderboards, challenges and rewards, and other video game-like tools are built into some sports wagering platforms. Those, in turn, keep people on platforms longer and more intensely engaged, said Adrian Hon, a game designer and author of “You’ve Been Played.”

“They tighten the loop of setting a bet and getting the feedback,” Hon said. “And so it does make it more visceral. It makes it more exciting. It makes it more real-time.”

Jason Levin is the founder of Memelord Technologies, a marketing company that offers companies tools to make meme templates. He says prediction market operators Polymarket and Kalshi have both used the company.

“If you want to attract a younger audience, you’re going to use memes. You’re going to use unhinged humor,” Levin said in comments to US News. “You’re going to try to get in front of them by any means necessary.”

The GAME Act, with its limited scope, is unlikely to reduce advertising directed at minors, even if it is passed. Bans on social media have been introduced in Australia and talked about in the UK, but in the age of the internet, sheltering minors from gambling and other adult content looks increasingly challenging. 

“Years ago, parents could lock the door at night and assume that their children were safe,” said Sen. Britt. “In today’s digital age, that is sadly no longer the case — dangers can enter our homes every single day through the palm of our children’s hands. Youth gambling addictions could be developing under parents’ roofs without them even knowing it, which is why it’s critical that we help parents combat this.”

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Game gets popular, games gets clones, that’s just how the cookie crumbles. Vampire Survivors, Buckshot Roulette, Lethal Company; as soon as those games blew up, derivatives were a guarantee. This is true of Balatro too of course, a game which has produced so many clones that wildly swing between dealing with gambling in a tactful manner and outright just saying that it’s good, actually. So how about a Balatro-like that forgoes the gambling, and asks you to whip out a dictionary instead?

That game is Lexispell, a roguelike word game with a dash of physics thrown into the mix. The name doesn’t have great mouthfeel, a tad ironic for a game about words, but the magic is in the spelling. Lexispell positions you as a witch of sorts, one where you fill your cauldron up with letters in a Suika Game sort of fashion. Each letter is worth a certain amount of points, which vary depending on the rarity of the letter, though you can also get fancier ones that are worth more. They can also fuse if multiple of the same letter type land next to one another.

Upon spelling a word, their value is tallied up, and your multiplier goes up for every letter the word contains. When you finish a round, you can then buy scrolls, which are like Balatro’s Jokers, each netting you a different bonus. One of them gives you an extra five points for every letter that looks the same when flipped the other way. Another will add 15 points to your multiplier if you manage to spell a word that’s an anadrome, which is a word that when spelled backwards is a different word altogether.

Lexispell is also a lot slower a game than Balatro, namely because you’ll be spending a lot of time searching for the longest word you can. As it turns out, it’s not that easy to think of words on the fly based on a selection of random letters. Yes, I’ll say it: Lexispell is the Dark Souls of Wordle and no, this is not a hill I will die on because I value my time much too much for that. It is neat, though, and you can check it out on Steam now.

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Prediction market platform Kalshi has signed up to the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG), despite claiming it is not a gambling operator. 

The company has grown exponentially since launching sports markets last year. After starting with a market on the Super Bowl, it now offers wagering on all major events, including esports. 

State regulators have protested against its expansion, filing numerous lawsuits against the company, alleging it is offering unlicensed sports betting. Kalshi, however, argues it is not a gambling platform. 

Yet, joining the NCPG would appear to be an admission that it is indeed offering users the chance to gamble. 

Responsible Trading, Not Gambling

The NCPG said it has created a new membership subcategory specifically for Kalshi. It becomes the first financial services & trading category member. 

This allows the NCPG to refrain from calling Kalshi a gambling company. In the press release, the organization notes that it “maintains a neutral position on the legality of specific gambling, wagering, or prediction products.”

The organization is quite explicit in its mission; however, which is to “mitigate harm and lessen the personal, social, and economic consequences of problem gambling.”

Heather L. Maurer, Executive Director of NCPG was careful not to use the word gambling when commenting on Kalshi, stating, “Innovation and responsibility can and must evolve together. Kalshi’s engagement demonstrates a commitment to mitigating harm before it occurs and ensuring support resources are accessible when they are needed.”

Could Kalshi’s Commitment Be Used Against It?

Kalshi has committed to investing $2 million over the next two years in the NCPG to aid its fight against problem gambling. 

“At Kalshi, we believe in the power of prediction markets, and we are sensitive to the fact that they, like any financial trading products, come with risks,” said Tarek Mansour, co-founder and CEO of Kalshi. “As prediction markets continue to evolve, we are deeply committed to setting a new standard for responsible trading by investing in the tools, education, and protections needed to promote healthy participation and customer safety and hope that over time all trading platforms with significant retail participation follow suit.”

While its membership may be applauded in some quarters as a sign that the company is taking responsibility, it could also hurt its chances in court cases that hinge on whether judges see it as a gambling platform. 

The line between trading and gambling has become increasingly blurred. Over 90% of Kalshi’s trading volume comes from sports contracts. Esports accounts for a significant portion of that volume, as do parlays. 

In a court case arguing for the legality of election prediction markets, a Kalshi lawyer admitted that contracts on the Super Bowl or other sporting events would come under the category of gaming. The Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) says that contracts that fall under the category of gaming may be prohibited by the CFTC. 

The lawyer’s words have been used against Kalshi in legal battles, with many state regulators citing this as evidence that sports prediction markets are gambling. 

In joining the US’s primary nonprofit for tackling gambling harm, Kalshi may just have given opposing lawyers a new argument to use against it in court.

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Gambling interest groups are spending big in campaigns ahead of the Pennsylvania primaries this month. 

The Super PAC Win for America, which is funded by sportsbooks FanDuel, DraftKings, and Fanatics, has now given over $5 million to Win for Pennsylvania. 

The money is largely used to back incumbents’ campaigns after gambling groups successfully lobbied to prevent increases in the state’s sports betting tax. Pennsylvania takes 36% of sportsbook revenue in taxes. 

The Win for America PAC primarily supports Republican candidates. Money has been used in Pennsylvania to back the campaigns of Sens. Lisa Baker, Camera Bartolotta, and Chris Gebhard, according to a report from Spotlight PA. 

Sportsbooks Thankful For No Tax Increase

Primarily, gambling companies are backing the candidates who declined to raise taxes on the industry in last year’s budget. 

After the budget passed with no increase, the Sports Betting Alliance (SBA) ran ads thanking Gebhard and Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman for “standing with PA sports fans and against raising taxes.”

The SBA, which includes the three sportsbooks funding Win for Pennsylvania, as well as bet365 and BetMGM, argues that increasing sports betting taxes would “force the companies to pass on the costs to consumers.”

Companies largely passed on the costs to consumers when hit with a new per-bet tax in Illinois last year. The SBA has sued the city of Chicago after it added another levy on top of the new betting surcharge. 

Esports Betting Push Could Be Renewed

Republican politicians have also introduced legislation to expand legal betting in Pennsylvania, including allowing esports gambling. 

Rep. Ed Neilson introduced HB1636 last year, which would legalize esports betting and give the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board the power to authorize other events as it sees fit. 

The legislation was referred to the House Gaming Committee in June last year, but has not made any progress since. 

If the gambling-backed incumbents win re-election, it could help renew the push for esports gambling to be authorized. 

Pennsylvania Proposes Regulating Esports Prediction Markets

In the meantime, residents can wager on esports prediction markets, but the state has also introduced legislation to regulate this. 

A group of Democrats introduced HB2497 last week. The bill proposes charging prediction market platforms a $1 million license fee and imposing a 20% tax on revenue. 

The legislation would also allow the Board to restrict certain markets relating to “sensitive matters,” including elections, military conflicts, judicial rulings, and natural disasters.

It would not, however, restrict esports or other markets on sporting events. 

Skill Gaming Industry Spending On Rival Campaigns

Another key gambling interest in the elections is coming from the skill gaming industry. Sen. Bartolotta, who has been backed by the sportsbooks, said skill games proponents are “trying to take the Senate of Pennsylvania hostage” through campaign spending.

Citizens Alliance, a conservative political group funded almost entirely by skill game developer Pace-O-Matic, has spent millions of dollars in campaigns against Bartoletta, Baker, and Gebhard. 

Gebhard introduced a bill that would restrict and tax skill games across the state. Cliff Maloney, CEO of Citizens Alliance, said the group is  “working to hold Senate Republicans accountable that proposed a new tax on certain small businesses.”

Like Bartolotta, Gebhard spoke out against the campaign against him. He stated, “Seeing the sheer power of third-party money, we probably should be having a conversation on: ‘Is this a positive for the system and the people of Pennsylvania?’”

The primaries on Tuesday will give an indication of which group has spent its money wisely.

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