Strengthening Transparency in Online Gaming Bonuses

16 October 2026

Transparent conditions and accessible records are becoming the new normal for online gambling promotions as states refine their regulations. Three major regulated markets — Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Michigan — are joining forces to spell out exactly how bonus offers have to be worded and tracked. A plain-language paper trail is now indispensable for compliant promotions.

Pennsylvania Adds New Promotion Rules

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has newly detailed followon rules for online gaming promotions in guidance 2025-05. Operators must submit the terms and conditions for any online promotion at least five days before it goes live, and must keep those terms available throughout the promotion through both the operator's own web pages and any third-party platforms.

The Board specifies that any promotional copy cannot be false, misleading or deceptive. The guidance clarifies that staff will review terms for those problems, but will not itself approve or sign off on the specifics of any given promotion. Profit boost promotions, like odds boosts, are specifically exempted from needing Board advance approval.

Recordkeeping Rules Tighten in New Jersey

Across the border, New Jersey has also sharpened its rules on promotional wagering. The state's Chapter 69O spells out exactly what must be documented for each bonus offer. At a minimum, the regulated gaming operator must retain records of:

The date and time the promotional offer was presented

The date and time the bonus offer begins and ends

Eligibility and redemption terms

More notably, New Jersey now ties up restrictions on player wagering with promotional disbursements. If a patron's lifetime deposits top $2,500, NJ's regulations mandate that no further bets can be placed until the player acknowledges a notice about the deposit-related restrictions in the broader regulation. This additional frictional provision is said to offer stronger consumer safeguards by defending patrons tempted to spend too heavily chasing deposit bonuses.

The new rules impose documentation burdens as well as restrictions on what staff may and may not say. Every bonus disclosure will need to be documented with all the foregoing details. But the most sweeping consequence, for the majority of promotional offers, is to eliminate generous no-deposit bonuses — a choice architect's favorite.

No-Deposit Bonuses Prove Harder to Write

New Jersey's new documentation and player acknowledgment requirements impose a plain-language mandate on gaming operators. This in turn makes some key types of promotions, especially no-deposit bonuses, much harder to write. Over time, operators have learned that it's easier to promote a deposit-related playthrough or wagering bonus than a no-deposit one. For one thing, the requirements are just harder to communicate. For another, no-deposit credits can pose real accounting problems for a gaming operator.

No-deposit credits risk being less tightly integrated than deposit-related promotional credits, which in turn risks tricky disbursement issues further along. Without a documented deposit history, it's harder to sequence promotional credits back into customer funds. Most regulatory experts expect to see the no-deposit bonus decline over time, as more markets follow the plain-language requirements of New Jersey and the documentation rules of Pennsylvania and Michigan, across the board.

State Rules Close Loopholes in Online Gaming Promotions

Across three major markets, gaming authorities are tightening controls on the details of online gaming promotions. Pennsylvania's demand for advance review spells the end of free-form marketing — and its staff have made clear they expect plain-language descriptions. New Jersey's credit restrictions and detailed recordkeeping requirement are congruent with this watchdog shift. In turn, this will be one major beachhead for the transparency and documentation push that will likely spread to other states in 2026 and beyond. Compliant gaming operators will distinguish themselves on this terrain, even as no-deposit offers and other looser forms of promotion gradually disappear.