- Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz told Pablo Torre Finds Out that he plans to file a bill for Congress to review in 2026 that bans player props. In the quote, it is unclear which props he was referring to.
- It may be difficult for Senator Schatz to get any sports betting legislation passed because the Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional for the federal government to enforce sports betting laws back in 2018 when PASPA was overturned.
WASHINGTON – Pablo Torre, on his podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out, reported that Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz plans to file a federal bill in 2026 to regulate props offered by legal sports betting sites in the US.
Senator Schatz told Torre, “We’re working on legislation to stop the kind of prop betting that gives a single bad actor the ability to manipulate a specific, singular outcome for a big payout. This is about protecting fans and restoring public trust in sports.”
Breaking: @PabloTorre has gotten word from Senator Brian Schatz that federal legislation may be proposed in 2026 to regulate sports prop betting in the United States pic.twitter.com/RMRU3e5eeo
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) December 22, 2025
Neither Torre nor Senator Schatz specifically outlines what the future proposal will look like, as the statement could mean a few different things regarding what props legal sports betting sites may offer.
The goal of Senator Schatz’s legislation is up to the interpretation of his quote to Pablo Torre. Two slightly different interpretations from his quote are:
- A law that prohibits player props at both the professional and collegiate levels. This would make sense based on the part of the quote where Senator Schatz says that the goal of the legislation is to prevent the ability of a single player from manipulating outcomes for the purpose of cashing a bet.
- The most likely outcome that will come of Senator Schatz’s quote to Torre is that Congress passes a bill that prevents US-based betting sites from having collegiate player props. This would most notably affect what betting sites have college football player props. It would also affect other popular sports like men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball, and college baseball. This is the most likely outcome of Senator Schatz’s quote because many states have already banned locally-regulated sportsbooks from offering player props for collegiate sports.
What is not up for interpretation from Senator Brian Schatz’s quote to Pable Torre Finds Out is that if his proposal passed through Congress, it would be the first time any sports betting laws in the US have been altered at the federal level since the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018.
When PASPA was repealed, the Supreme Court essentially determined that the federal government was not allowed to enforce any sports betting laws because it was unconstitutional.
Given that previous sentiment, it may be difficult for Senator Schatz to pass any of the sports betting legislation that he was referring to when speaking to Pablo Torre Finds Out.
