Kentucky regulates paid fantasy contests and restricts access to betting

The Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation licenses and oversees paid fantasy contests. Players must be at least 18. Providers generally must verify that players are physically in Kentucky when entering, unless the state gaming regulator allows otherwise. Covered contests use multiple athletes' results. Free contests and betting against the contest provider are excluded. Providers must check identities, prevent fraud and underage play, and maintain programs to curb compulsive play. People may voluntarily block themselves from participating. Prizes won while on the state's exclusion list are forfeited to gambling-help programs. Initial license fees range from $5,000 to $15,000. Annual renewal fees range from $1,000 to $10,000, depending on receipts and sports-betting license status. The lower-fee tier applies below $50,000 in annual receipts after prizes, adjusted for Kentucky entries. Rules are due within 180 days of the law's effective date. Existing providers may continue pending a licensing decision if they apply within 90 days after rules are issued.

Gaming operators must enforce age, child-support, and betting restrictions. Sports betting requires age 21. The debt registry covers at least $500 in overdue child support per government-enforced case under a Kentucky court order or another state's order registered and enforceable in Kentucky. Licensed online gaming, sports-betting, and fantasy-contest operators must deny accounts to people on the child-support debt registry. Charitable gaming is exempt. Operators must suspend listed account holders within five business days of receiving an updated registry. They must restore accounts within five business days of receiving a registry that removes the person. Sportsbooks cannot accept bets that pay when an athlete on a Kentucky college team misses a statistical target or has a negative performance. Covered racing, sports-betting, and fantasy-contest licensees and their affiliates cannot participate in Kentucky prediction markets, receive their proceeds, or contract with providers tied to those markets. These markets trade contracts based on future events. The state updates the child-support registry monthly, or more often when practical.

Charities and businesses hosting or supplying fundraising games must follow licensing, location, and player-protection rules. These rules cover charities running fundraising games and businesses supplying or hosting them. License-fee ceilings are $1,000 for charities and $5,000 for facilities, manufacturers, and distributors. Administrative fines may reach $5,000 per offense. Electronic pulltab games, the screen versions of break-open prize tickets, require separated areas that people under 21 cannot enter. Where younger people are allowed elsewhere, staff must check identification. Five or more devices require a full-time chairperson employed by the charity. Charities may reasonably pay chairpersons for required training and identification checks. Area-rule violations bring $1,000 and $2,500 fines. A third violation within one year at the same premises bars charitable gaming there. Electronic games generally need one approved main site and may have one additional site in the same or a neighboring county. Extra sites operating on July 1, 2025, may continue under conditions covering licenses, leases, age restrictions, and reporting. Some closures or property transfers allow relocation or rebuilding. Facilities licensed before the effective date must begin transferring their licenses to licensed charities within 90 days. Charities affiliated with them on January 1, 2026, receive first consideration. State approval is required, with a decision due within 90 days of application. From April 15, 2026, until April 15, 2027, approvals outside main charity sites, bingo sites, and pre-approved event sites pause unless regulating rules are issued. Existing sites may receive supplies and updates.

Licensed tracks may offer horse-race bets with odds agreed upon when the bet is placed. Licensed tracks may conduct fixed-odds horse betting with or without a service provider. Tracks and betting-system companies must also update their pooled-betting technology annually, consistent with existing contracts. Tracks need a supplemental license for fixed-odds betting, with a $2,500 initial fee and $2,500 annual renewal fee. Bookmakers must accept bets allowing at least $1,000 in potential winnings per race. Taxes on fixed-odds live horse-racing revenue after winnings and federal betting taxes are 9.75% for bets at tracks and 14.25% for online bets. Covered combined bets are included. Revenue goes to a restricted fund for horse-race prize money. The gaming regulator may use no more than 10% of the prize fund when reasonably needed to supplement live-race prizes. Unspent money carries forward. Tracks must stop betting no later than the starting gate opens. Cash settlements may round to the nearest five cents when pennies are unavailable, after charges are calculated to the cent. Noncash settlements remain exact. Prize-fund money must be held for at least one and one-half years after the effective date. Betting equipment must provide commercially reasonable access to odds for ordinary bettors by April 1, 2027.

Thoroughbred registrars must follow registration protections, and Kentucky's lottery and gaming regulators may issue rules without the Governor's signature. Registration protections include otherwise eligible foals of mares bred, residing, or foaling in Kentucky. The signature exemption covers ordinary and emergency rules from the Kentucky Lottery Corporation and Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation. A Thoroughbred registrar cannot limit the number of mares bred to a stallion or refuse foal registration because of that number unless International Stud Book Committee member representatives unanimously adopt and implement the limits. If a registrar fails to comply, the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation must select a registrar for Kentucky Thoroughbreds. A harmed party may seek remedies, triple damages, and actual damages for prohibited registration restrictions. The Jockey Club, breeders, and international registration authorities must jointly consider horse genetics and possible breeding limits. This review does not require breeding caps or genetic monitoring. The Thoroughbred development fund directs $100,000 each fiscal year to gambling assistance. At least 90% of remaining money supports Kentucky purposes, and up to 10% supports gaming-regulator operations. Each licensed racing association receives at least 90% of its contribution. Unspent money carries forward. The breeding-review parties must submit findings and recommendations to the legislative licensing committee on or before December 1, 2026.