New York’s gaming regulator has unanimously advanced revised rules that would sharply limit the use of artificial intelligence and automated profiling to personalize mobile sports betting. The proposal would cover licensed sportsbooks as well as their affiliates and vendors, preventing them from analyzing customer data with AI, machine learning, generative systems or other automated decision tools to tailor promotions, bonuses, odds, betting limits, messages and product recommendations.
The restrictions would also prohibit operators from suggesting particular wagers, wager types or wager amounts, and from using promotions designed to increase a customer’s spending, revenue or engagement. They would go beyond New York’s existing advertising rules, which already generally bar licensees and sports-pool vendors from advising an individual patron to make a specific wager, while allowing general advertising and promotional activity.
The proposal includes consent-based exceptions. Pari-mutuel horse-racing applications would be allowed to suggest wagers if a patron had affirmatively opted in. The model was based on a comparable New Jersey regulation, although New York’s version would not impose an outright ban on use of the technology.
The rules were formally proposed amid scrutiny of how betting applications treat potentially vulnerable customers. ProPublica reported that its investigation found a reporter deposited $21,600 into a DraftKings account in less than eight weeks while displaying signs of compulsive gambling, without a company review or intervention beyond responsible-gaming notices. The outlet said the commission’s action followed reporting, including allegations that DraftKings used AI and data scientists to target promotions to losing bettors.
The commission also advanced a separate proposal requiring licensees to identify patrons who may be at risk of problem-gambling behavior and appoint a person to contact them about those concerns. Chairman Brian O’Dwyer warned that a customer restricted by one operator could simply move to another, urging the industry to share data so an intervention could not be avoided by changing sportsbooks.
New York has nine licensed mobile sports-betting operators and taxes mobile-wagering gross gaming revenue at 51%. The Sports Betting Alliance said it would continue working with the regulator to ensure the rules strengthen the regulated market, which has allowed adults aged 21 and older to wager legally since 2022.
The AI and player-protection proposals were included in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of the State 2026 program. The AI rule now enters a 60-day public-comment period before returning to the commission for discussion and a possible vote; no final-vote date has been set.
