New York’s Gaming Commission has unanimously advanced two proposed rules that would require mobile sportsbooks to identify potentially vulnerable customers and sharply restrict the use of artificial intelligence and other automated systems to tailor betting offers.
One proposal would require licensees to use specified behavioural thresholds to spot customers at risk of problem gambling, conduct additional due diligence into financial vulnerability in certain cases, and designate someone to contact the customer about gambling-related concerns. A proposed trigger includes a rise of at least 50% in a user’s weekly app time compared with the preceding two-week period.
The proposals, first published in March after months of drafting, now enter a 60-day public-comment period before returning to the commission, unless substantially changed. They were advanced following Gov. Kathy Hochul’s call for action on problem gambling and were included in her 2026 State of the State programme.
The separate AI proposal would restrict sportsbooks, affiliates and vendors from using AI, machine learning, algorithmic profiling, automated decision systems or generative systems to analyse customer data in order to personalise promotions, bonuses, odds, betting limits, messages or product recommendations. It would also prohibit suggestions of particular wagers, wager types or wager amounts, and promotions designed to raise spending, revenue or engagement.
The draft includes an exception for customers who consent, and a separate opt-in exemption for pari-mutuel horse-racing applications that suggest wagers. The revised AI measure will receive further public comment before the commission discusses it and could vote on it.
New York has nine licensed mobile sportsbook operators. Commission chair Brian O’Dwyer said the rules gave the industry an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to protecting customers, but warned that operators needed to solve the problem of bettors moving between apps to avoid intervention. He urged the companies to share data so that a restriction imposed by one operator could not simply be circumvented at another.
The behavioural approach resembles guidelines already used in New Jersey. Examples include a customer depositing more than $10,000 in 24 hours or wagering more than $1 million in 90 days; DraftKings has said it already follows those thresholds. New York’s AI proposal was also based on a New Jersey regulation, although the latter does not impose an outright AI ban.
The Responsible Online Gaming Association welcomed the framework but recommended that its triggers should not disrupt existing data-driven risk systems. It said interventions should be proportionate, operationally scalable and effective.
The measures followed heightened scrutiny of sportsbook practices. ProPublica found that a reporter who deposited $21,600 with DraftKings in under eight weeks and bet compulsively was not referred for a company review or intervention beyond responsible-gaming notices, and was later made a VIP. Separately, The New York Times reported that DraftKings used machine learning and customer betting histories to identify people likely to continue gambling when offered promotions.
DraftKings denied using AI to target people based on losses or marketing to customers based on indicators of potential problem gambling. Regulators in Maine, Michigan and Massachusetts have also examined issues raised by the reporting; a Massachusetts Gaming Commission research report found that advanced personalisation can improve customer experience while increasing risks for vulnerable people.
The new proposals add to New York’s wider focus on mobile wagering harms. As covered in August, the state inspector general recorded 228 mobile sports-wagering complaints among 481 gaming-related complaints in 2025. Mobile betting has also surpassed casino gambling as the leading reason for calls to New York’s gambling helpline, while the largest annual rise in gambling-related treatment use came between 2021 and 2022, after legal mobile wagering began in January 2022.
The commission will take public comments for 60 days before the proposals return for further consideration.
