New Jersey Senate Bill S4794 would prohibit sports wagering licensees from offering micro bets and would establish penalties for doing so. The bill defines a micro bet as a proposition bet wagered live while a sport or athletic event is ongoing and concerning the outcome of the next play or action, with the example of betting that the next pitch in baseball will be a strike.
Introduced on 27 October 2025, the bill says sports wagering has been highly successful since it was legalized in New Jersey in 2018. It argues that sportsbooks have developed new methods of wagering that are more enticing and engaging for bettors, but that carry additional risks to bettors’ health and well-being and to sports integrity.
The proposal says the rapid pace of many sporting events allows micro bets to keep fans engaged on every play while cutting the time available to research and weigh a wager. It adds that bettor losses can accumulate quickly and that the near-immediate reward offered by micro bets can contribute to problem gambling.
To support that case, the bill cites the National Council on Problem Gambling’s estimate that as many as 8 million people nationwide suffer from problem gambling. It also points to a 277% spike in calls to the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey’s problem-gambling helpline since sports wagering was legalized.
The bill further says problem gambling contributes to mental health decline, joblessness and instability. It cites an estimated total social cost of problem gambling of as much as $14 billion a year, and says professional athletes are at increased risk of showing signs of problem gambling.
The measure says some studies estimate that 57% of professional athletes may wager on sports, with roughly 8% being considered problem gamblers. It also says micro bets, which concern one particular play or action, are easier to fix than many traditional forms of wagering, and may be especially enticing to athletes struggling with problem gambling because of their specific nature. The bill says there have been several reported cases of professional athletes being investigated for altering performance to meet the terms of micro-bet wagers.
A separate PubMed scoping review on microbetting and fantasy sports found that micro-betting allows constant and impulsive betting and may augment the risk of gambling disorder. The review, which screened studies from November 2014 to November 2019 and ultimately included 22 of 131 references, concluded that current evidence suggests public health problems linked to fantasy sports and micro-betting, including severe problem gambling and impulsivity.
One Australian study cited in the evidence tracked 501 past-month online sports bettors. It found that 34% had placed an in-play bet in the past month, that those bettors had higher problem-gambling severity scores, and that problem-gambling severity significantly predicted in-play betting.
In that sample, 78% of micro-event bettors met criteria for problem gambling and 5% met criteria for non-problem gambling. Among non-micro event bettors, the shares were 29% and 28%, respectively. The study also said micro-event bettors tended to be younger, well-educated, single and high in trait impulsivity, and that they engaged in more gambling forms, more sports and more sports-betting promotions.
New Jersey’s existing internet and mobile gaming rules already require systems to verify a player’s location, block wagers when the location is unauthorized and display the message: “If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-Gambler.”
