New Jersey Sen. Kristin Corrado has reintroduced legislation to ban wagers on the performances of college athletes, reviving a proposal that had bipartisan support in 2025 but never reached a State Senate vote.
College player props are bets on an athlete’s performance rather than a game’s result. Corrado said college athletes should not become targets “simply because someone wants to gamble on an individual stat line,” Capital News Service reported in September.
The evidence packet does not specify a bill number, committee assignment or timetable for the 2026 measure. Its reintroduction nevertheless places New Jersey among states still weighing the scope of restrictions on college props, as the NCAA has made eliminating such bets a priority under President Charlie Baker.
Fifteen states, including Maryland, Ohio, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, prohibit all college player props. More than a dozen others permit only certain forms of the bets, often excluding athletes at in-state schools.
The scale of the market has sharpened the debate. An analysis by the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism found sportsbooks offered more than 7,000 player-prop lines during the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, excluding daily fantasy products that are regulated differently.
New Jersey voters previously rejected a broader 2021 ballot question that would have allowed casinos and current or former racetracks to take wagers on all college sporting events. The proposal failed 57% to 43%; at that time, state law barred bets on college events held in New Jersey and events involving New Jersey college teams.
The reintroduced bill also arrives amid wider concern over gambling-related abuse of athletes. As reported in September, major U.S. sports leagues and players associations asked New Jersey and other jurisdictions to impose permanent betting bans on people who threaten or abusively harass athletes and team personnel.
At the federal level, Rep. Michael Baumgartner introduced H.R. 1552, the PROTECT Student Athletes Act, in February 2025. The bill would prohibit prop bets on student-athletes’ performances while leaving wagers on college games themselves available, with violations treated as unfair or deceptive practices under the Federal Trade Commission Act.
