Pennsylvania lawmakers have introduced a bill that would impose mandatory limits across online gambling accounts, including poker, by restricting deposits, losses, play time and operator rewards. HB 2879, introduced Oct. 21 by Reps. Tarik Khan and Jamie Flick, remains before the House Gaming Oversight Committee and would not alter current rules unless it passes the House and Senate and is signed by the governor.
The proposal would bar operator programmes that assign hosts to players or reward higher levels of play, deposits or losses. It would also prohibit account-opening and deposit bonuses, putting welcome offers and deposit-match promotions at risk. The bill does not specifically refer to poker rakeback, which returns a portion of player-paid fees; whether that reward is captured by the loyalty-program prohibition would require clarification from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board or the courts.
Poker players would be limited to two deposits each day. HB 2879 would also require a 15-minute interval between a deposit and a wager, other than a first wager on a new account, and would permit funding only through ACH debit, wire transfer or physical check.
The measure would make players set daily and monthly loss limits before their first wager, with wagering stopping automatically once either threshold is met. Those limits could be lowered immediately, but an increase would be subject to a cooling-off period set by the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs.
It would additionally set compulsory loss cutoffs. Players aged 21 to 25 would be stopped after losses of $750 in 24 hours or $2,500 over 30 days; for those 25 and older, the thresholds would be $1,500 and $5,000. It would cap interactive-game wagers at $2 per play for the younger group and $5 for players over 25.
A separate provision would limit signed-in gambling to two hours in each 24-hour period. Players could select a shorter period but not a longer one, and would have to wait 72 hours before increasing a chosen time limit. The restriction could materially affect poker tournaments that run beyond two hours, while Pennsylvania-based players in shared multi-state poker pools would remain subject to the state’s limits.
HB 2879 would also prohibit games that resolve in less than 15 seconds, autoplay functions and certain sports bets, including microbets on individual live plays. Those provisions principally concern slots and sports betting rather than poker.
The bill follows a gambling-harm study commissioned by lawmakers in 2025 and published in July. As covered in August, a bipartisan commission report called for stronger safeguards such as improved activity statements, self-exclusion protections and options for deposit and time limits.
Khan said the study found companies were “using predatory practices to keep people betting, even as they’re losing everything.” Research cited by the legislation found that 5.7% of online sports bettors accounted for 80% of spending; at one sportsbook, VIP customers made up about 0.5% of players while generating more than 70% of revenue in 2019-20. The Sports Betting Alliance’s president, Joe Maloney, compared VIP rewards with loyalty programmes offered by Starbucks and T-Mobile.
The Gaming Control Board separately proposed gambling-limit regulations on July 11, with public comment closing Aug. 10. Those rules would require poker operators to offer player-selected limits, rather than establish the mandatory ceilings in HB 2879. The Independent Regulatory Review Commission’s record for the proposal, Regulation No. 125-258, still showed no final regulation submitted.
Pennsylvania online poker produced $2.27 million in September, down 1.76% from a year earlier. The House calendar lists Nov. 9 and 10 as its final scheduled session days of the year; legislation not enacted by the Nov. 30 end of the session would have to be introduced again next year.
