Pennsylvania Lawmakers Push Bipartisan Bills to Cap Deposits and Curb Online Gambling Ads

A bipartisan pair of Pennsylvania state representatives — Tarik Khan (D-Philadelphia) and Jamie Flick (R-Lycoming/Union) — introduced a package of online gambling consumer-protection bills in early June 2026. The legislation follows a record $2.78 billion in iGaming operator revenue in Pennsylvania in 2025, and growing concern among lawmakers that consumer safeguards have not kept pace with the market’s rapid growth.

What the Bills Propose

The package — formally titled “Protecting Public Health in Online Gambling” — contains three distinct bills. The first, the Pennsylvania Online Consumer Protection Act, would establish reasonable limits on how frequently players can deposit into online gambling accounts. It would also restrict text message solicitations, push notifications involving bonus codes, and advertisements that could be considered youth-targeted.

The second bill would ban the use of credit cards to fund online gambling accounts — a measure mirroring restrictions already in place in the United Kingdom. The third would prohibit operators from directly marketing to or sending promotions to individuals who have enrolled in Pennsylvania’s voluntary self-exclusion programme.

Parallel legislation in the Pennsylvania Senate — Senate Bills 265 and 266 — addresses credit card funding and self-exclusion marketing respectively, suggesting multi-chamber momentum behind the consumer-protection push.

Why Now

Pennsylvania iGaming operators set a revenue record in 2025, pulling in $2.78 billion for the year. That growth has prompted lawmakers to argue that regulatory frameworks written when the market was small need updating to reflect the scale of player exposure today. Advocates for the bills point to rising problem-gambling helpline calls and increasing average player losses as evidence that better guardrails are needed.

What It Means for Players

If passed, the bills would give Pennsylvania some of the strongest consumer-protection rules for online gambling in the US. A credit card ban in particular would align the state with UK best practice and limit a key pathway for players to gamble beyond their means. For the moment, all three bills remain in the legislative review stage and have not been scheduled for a floor vote. Players in Pennsylvania should watch developments closely ahead of the next legislative session.