Gaming - Problem Gambling and College Athlete Protections
HB518 expands Maryland’s gambling regulations to add new responsible-gaming protections across state lottery, video lottery, fantasy competition, and sports wagering systems. The bill directs the State Lottery and Gaming Control Commission to adopt regulations intended to reduce or mitigate problem gambling, including creating voluntary exclusion lists and a simple process for individuals to self-exclude for a specified period. It also requires the Commission, when a person opts in, to share contact information with the Maryland Center for Excellence on Problem Gambling so the person can be offered free and confidential assistance.
The bill also adds age and participation limits for fantasy competitions, barring individuals under 21 from participating and prohibiting operators from offering fantasy competition services to those under 21, with a limited grandfathering provision for certain existing accounts created before July 1, 2026. In sports wagering, HB518 prohibits player-specific proposition bets on collegiate sports or athletic events, adds stronger age-verification and responsible-gaming disclosures for online wagering, requires self-imposed deposit limits and temporary account suspensions, bans credit cards for online sports wagering transactions, and mandates prominent problem-gambling messaging at login. Finally, it requires sports wagering licensees to provide de-identified transactional and metrics data to Morgan State University, Bowie State University, and the University of Maryland School of Medicine for research and prevalence studies.
HB518 amends multiple sections of the State Government Article governing lottery gaming, fantasy competitions, and sports wagering. It creates or strengthens voluntary exclusion and responsible-gaming requirements, adds new compliance duties for the Commission and licensees, restricts certain fantasy and collegiate prop wagering activity, and establishes a research-data reporting framework for sports wagering operators. The bill affects the State Lottery and Gaming Control Commission, fantasy competition operators, sports wagering licensees, the Maryland Center for Excellence on Problem Gambling, and the named universities that receive de-identified data.
The bill appears to have broad support and little visible opposition. It received a favorable committee report with amendments, was adopted by the House, and passed third reading unanimously in the House with 127 yeas and 0 nays. The overall tone of the legislation is protective and public-health oriented, emphasizing responsible gambling, youth protections, and research-based oversight.
The main policy questions reflected in the bill are how far to go in restricting gambling products and how to balance consumer protection with user privacy and operator flexibility. The bill’s most notable restrictions are the ban on player-specific proposition bets in collegiate sports and the age-21 limit for fantasy competition participation, which may affect operators and adult users between 18 and 20. Another potential point of sensitivity is the sharing of self-exclusion contact information with the problem gambling center, although the bill includes an opt-out. The required reporting of transactional and financial metrics to universities may also raise privacy and data-governance concerns, but the bill limits disclosure to de-identified data and research purposes.