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Pennsylvania must decide whether to move quickly to rein in online gambling addiction or study the problem longer to protect the billions of dollars the industry generates in tax revenue each year.
The bipartisan Joint State Government Commission recently released a report recommending new regulations for how online casinos operate in Pennsylvania, aiming to curb rising rates of problem gambling that some mental health experts call “an urgent and escalating public health challenge.”
The commission’s report is advisory, though, and carries no legal force on its own — lawmakers would have to act on most of its recommendations. Separately, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has already proposed binding rules of its own that are open for public comment.
Either way, the state faces a trade-off: Act fast on the responsible gambling recommendations and cut into the industry’s revenue, or study the issue further and phase in more targeted changes.
PA’s addiction rates outpace the national average
Pennsylvanians are about twice as likely to develop a gambling addiction as the rest of the country, according to a Penn State study cited in the report. The Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society and the Pennsylvania Society of Addiction Medicine have gone further, warning in a joint statement that more than 1 in 4 Pennsylvanians are at risk of developing a gambling disorder.
The commission’s report cites research linking gambling addiction to financial hardship, domestic violence, harassment of college athletes and, in some cases, suicide. It also points to a surge in the number of people self-excluding from online casinos as a sign of the toll gambling addiction is taking.
“The report made it clear that gambling is not a personal failing — it’s a public health issue, and the recommendations really reflect that,” said Kavita Fischer, a Pittsburgh psychiatrist and past president of the state psychiatric society. Fischer has become one of Pennsylvania’s leading advocates for addressing gambling addiction after she fell into six-figure debt from mobile sports betting following her divorce, according to AP News.
Philadelphia is the largest market for gambling advertising in the country, and Pittsburgh ranks fifth.
“Imagine if you were trying to quit drinking and someone kept leaving alcohol at your doorstep, and then left coupons for alcohol at your doorstep,” Fischer said. “That is what is the predatory part of all of this.”
The report also recommends replacing the term “compulsive and problem gambling” in state law with “gambling disorder,” aligning state terminology with how medical science now classifies the condition.
Credit card bans, ad limits, and responsible gambling rules
The commission divides its responsible gambling recommendations into two tracks.
The first is what it calls a “deliberate” measure: requiring gambling operators to share anonymized player data — including age, gender, region, and how often, how long and how much someone bets — with an outside nonprofit that would help researchers identify and intervene with at-risk gamblers, while preserving most industry revenue.
The second track lists faster, more disruptive changes that could reduce revenue more immediately, including:
- Banning the use of credit cards to fund betting accounts, mirroring existing rules for in-person casinos
- Requiring gamblers to set loss and time limits in advance, rather than making the limits opt-in
- Banning “in-game” sports betting, or wagers placed on a contest after it has started, which the report links to compulsive gambling
- Prohibiting VIP programs that offer large cash incentives and concierge services, which have been shown to keep people gambling after major losses
- Barring ads aimed at people without accounts and banning AI-generated promotions
- Requiring advertisers to stop marketing to people who opt out of promotions within five days, and to cease all advertising to anyone who has self-excluded
- Restricting ads that target audiences made up mostly of children and requiring stronger age-verification safeguards
- Capping the overall volume of gambling ads to prevent market saturation
- Banning ads that misrepresent odds or describe promotions as “free” or “risk-free” money
Separately, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has already proposed binding rules addressing many of these same concerns. Published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin on July 11, the proposal would require casinos to:
- Offer daily, weekly and monthly betting limits
- Let players suspend their account for up to a year
- Mandate monthly reporting on how many players set limits, self-excluded, or had accounts closed over problem gambling
Public comment on the Gaming Control Board’s proposed rulemaking closes Aug. 10, after which the Independent Regulatory Review Commission has 30 days to weigh in.
Weighing tax dollars against the cost of addiction
Pennsylvania legalized online casinos in 2017, and the state now has the largest online gambling market in the country. The industry generated $7.7 billion in gambling revenue in 2025 — comparable to all the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip combined — and its profits are growing 10 times as fast as Nevada’s.
That scale makes the politics difficult. Passing the commission’s recommendations would be an uphill battle in a divided legislature, particularly since the state collects billions of dollars a year in gambling tax revenue and gambling interests have spent millions of dollars lobbying lawmakers.
The report acknowledges the industry’s economic upside without estimating its social costs: “There is no denying that the revenue from online gambling and sports betting can be economically beneficial overall for the states where iGaming is legal,” it states. It does note, however, that a small share of gamblers accounts for a disproportionate share of industry profits — in one Connecticut study, just 5% of gamblers produced 75% of casino revenue.
State Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Brookline, held a hearing on gambling addiction in Pittsburgh in May and has introduced two bills addressing the issue, including one that would ban credit card use for online betting. Fontana said the commission’s report gives his legislation new momentum and expects broader gambling reform to come up this fall alongside a separate debate over taxing skill games.
“It’s not like we’re shutting down the industry. We’re just trying to help the folks that need help here,” Fontana said. “Is there a trade-off? Sure. There’s going to be a trade-off.”
