New York looks at biometric age verification to curb underage sports gambling

The governor of New York State is considering regulating online sports betting with requirements for biometric age checks.

In her 2026 State of the State address, Governor Kathy Hochul expresses her commitment to protecting children from tech-related harms, pointing to the ban on phones in classrooms as a major accomplishment that has yielded results. 

“Building on our success, I say we enact new requirements to protect all social media users under 18: Let’s block direct messages from would-be child predators with automatic privacy settings. Let’s disable AI chatbots that can cause serious mental health problems. Let’s block location-sharing and let’s do more to cut off access to online sports gambling so our kids are not ensnared by addiction at a young age.” 

Per the agenda, the governor will direct the Gaming Commission to “explore effective ways to ensure young people are not illegally downloading betting apps, creating accounts, or using the accounts of others, including the use of biometric approaches.” That points to biometric age verification tools such as facial matching. 

A report from ESPN mentions facial recognition and thumbprint scanners as potential methods, and quotes a statement from Hochul, who says that “by engaging tools like biometric age verification, establishing stronger prevention and treatment and applying the same vigilance to online betting that we have brought to social media and AI, we will build on our progress to protect New Yorkers from predatory and addictive technologies.” 

The Sports Betting Alliance (SBA) says it is eager to work with New York regulators and lawmakers on uses for “advanced age and identity technologies,” and ways to crack down on illegal offshore gambling outfits that shun compliance.  

Hochul’s agenda will also require labeling on social media platforms warning of risks to mental health for young people. Labels will be mandatory for all platforms that use addictive feeds, autoplay or infinite scroll.

Article Topics

age verification  |  biometric age estimation  |  biometrics  |  children  |  facial age estimation (FAE)  |  gambling  |  New York