H.R. 7955 — BETS OFF Act

This section defines two terms for purposes of the Act. "Specified event" means (1) an act of terrorism, (2) an assassination, (3) a war, or (4) any non-financial, non-commercial, or non-economic event that is a government action, under the complete control of any person, or known in advance by any person. "Wager" means staking or risking something of value on a future event's outcome (or any portion thereof) with an agreement to receive something of value upon a certain outcome but excludes insurance for which the insured holds a lawful insurable interest under state law (per the McCarran-Ferguson Act), applicable foreign law (for risks outside the United States or reinsurance thereof), or federal law—including the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program, National Flood Insurance Program, and Federal Crop Insurance Program.

This section prohibits any person from placing, accepting, or facilitating the placement or acceptance of a wager on a specified event and authorizes the Attorney General to bring a civil action for injunctive relief in federal district court against violators.

This section amends federal criminal statutes on racketeering enterprises, illegal gambling businesses, and unlawful internet gambling to expand the definition of "gambling" to include conduct prohibited by section 3(a) of the Banning Event Trading on Sensitive Operations and Federal Functions Act (18 U.S.C. 1952(b), 1955(b); 31 U.S.C. 5362(1)). It further amends the Commodity Exchange Act to prohibit registered entities (i.e., designated contract markets, swap execution facilities, and derivatives clearing organizations regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission) from listing or making available for clearing or trading any agreement, contract, transaction, or swap involving a specified event, as defined in section 2 of such Act (or any related index, measure, value, data, occurrence, extent of occurrence, or contingency) (7 U.S.C. 5c(c)(5)).

This section includes a severability clause providing that, if any provision of the Act or its amendments is held unconstitutional as applied to any person or circumstance, the remainder of the Act and its amendments remain in effect.