Pennsylvania Bill Would Cap Online Casino Spins at $5

A bipartisan pair of Pennsylvania lawmakers has filed a bill that would cap online casino bets at $5 a play, lock players out after set losses and end sign-up bonuses and VIP hosts. House Bill 2879, from Democrat Tarik Khan and Republican Jamie Flick, was introduced on October 21 and referred to the House Gaming Oversight Committee the same day.

If it passed, it would rewrite the rules for every licensed online casino in Pennsylvania and every mobile sportsbook too. Flick is the only Republican among the bill’s 10 sponsors, and the General Assembly’s bill page lists no votes and no committee meetings so far.

A Package Built Since June

HB 2879 is the lead bill in a three-bill package Khan and Flick first circulated to House members on June 3 under the title “Protecting Public Health in Online Gambling.” Their memo says the package “draws from bipartisan legislation introduced in Pennsylvania and Colorado.”

The other two bills are narrower. HB 2875 would stop players using credit cards to fund online gambling accounts, and HB 2874 would bar operators from sending ads, promotions or bonuses to people who have signed up for the state’s self-exclusion program. Both were also referred to Gaming Oversight on October 21.

Bet and Loss Caps Split at Age 25

The caps in HB 2879 treat younger players more strictly. Anyone aged 21 to 25 could bet no more than $2 per play at a real-money online casino, and would be shut out for 24 hours after losing $750 in a day, or for 30 days after losing $2,500 over a 30-day period. Older players get a $5 limit per play and loss triggers of $1,500 a day and $5,000 over 30 days.

Deposits get their own limits. Operators could accept no more than two deposits in 24 hours, could not take a bet within 15 minutes of a deposit apart from a new player’s first wager, and would need an affordability check before accepting more than $5,000 in any 180-day period.

Payment would be limited to an ACH debit, a wire or a paper check. A credit card or government assistance card “may not, directly or indirectly, be accepted or permitted to fund a wager.”

Slower Games and Shorter Sessions

The bill reaches into game design too. It would ban any online game that takes less than 15 seconds from start to result, along with autoplay. Accounts would sign out after 15 minutes of inactivity, and the default time limit would be two hours in 24 hours, which a player could lower but never raise above that default.

Within six months of that rule taking effect, players would also have to give biometric data such as a face scan or fingerprint to open an account, confirm it at every login and again every 30 minutes. For sports betting apps, microbets on a single live play would be banned, as would prop bets that combine several outcomes from one game.

Bonuses, VIP Programs and Ads

The marketing rules are where the “no bonuses” reading comes from. The bill bars any financial incentive for opening an account or making a first deposit, and any incentive tied to a later deposit. Other bonus offers could only reach players who opt in, through the platform, email or mail, and never by push notification.

Ads could not use the words “bonus,” “no sweat” or “bonus bet,” and an offer could not be called free or risk-free if the player has to put up their own money. Online gambling ads would be banned between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. and during live broadcasts of sporting events.

VIP schemes are targeted directly. Operators could not run a loyalty or VIP program that assigns a host to a player or rewards more play, bigger deposits or bigger losses. The bill would also ban marketing deals where pay depends on sign-ups, the amount bet or the outcome of bets, which would rule out paying marketers for each new player they bring in.

Who Pays and Who Enforces

Operators would pay an assessment of 0.75% of gross online casino and online sports betting revenue into a restricted account that the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs would spend on prevention, treatment and research. The Gaming Control Board’s enforcement office would police the rules, and a violation would also count under the state’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law.

A $249 Million Month Online

The money at stake is large. The Gaming Control Board reported that online casino games generated $249,306,637 in September 2026, up 6.82% on a year earlier, out of $555,036,870 across all forms of gaming.

The bill’s findings draw on a state study, the Joint State Government Commission report ordered under House Resolution 60 of 2025. It found that VIP bettors at one online sportsbook were about 0.5% of customers in 2019 and 2020 but generated more than 70% of its revenue.

The same study found a promotion that would have required a player to wager about $375,000 to unlock a $2,000 bonus.