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The chairman of the New York State Gaming Commission has voiced support and applauded Governor Kathy Hochul for her commitment to protecting New Yorkers, as she outlined more than 200 initiatives, including gambling-related measures.
Amongst the many topics in the address, Governor Hochul has highlighted how online sports betting has become immensely popular and has stressed young people need to be protected from the harmful effects of gamified sports betting. She has also laid out how she would approach this going forward.
Shortly after her address, Brian O’Dwyer, the chairman of the NYS Gaming Commission, said: “The Gaming Commission fully supports and applauds Governor Hochul’s commitment to protect New Yorkers, including safeguards to prevent underage individuals from gambling and employing innovative tech to identify and help those who may be experiencing gambling harms.
“The Commission will consider actions to prevent underage access, including the possibility of biometric requirements for account access and real consequences for those who share their legal accounts with underage individuals.
“We will also continue to work with OASAS to implement the latest technology into the online sports wagering process to best position access to help for those who need it.”

Governor Huchul plans to bring in several gambling-related measures
Within the announcement, she says she “will direct the Gaming Commission to explore effective ways to ensure young people are not illegally downloading betting apps, creating accounts, or using the accounts of others, including the use of biometric approaches.
“These actions will protect young people from the harms of online betting, which include significant financial loss and addictive behavior.”
She has also set her sights on curbing gambling addiction in the state, as the address outlines how she will take “comprehensive action to strengthen prevention, treatment, and harm reduction around problem gambling through evidence-based practices and supports, as well as implementing a data-driven approach to identify and address long-term trends.”
This includes advancing legislation to ensure treatment for addiction disorders are covered by insurance, integrating gambling recovery services into 16 recovery community and outreach centers, establishing a Gambling Health Institute that equips organizations statewide with the tools and training they need to address problem gambling, creating a specialized certification for peer advocates who have lived experience with gambling harms, amongst several other changes. In December 2025, Hochul already outlawed online sweepstakes casinos with new enforcement and penalties, signing Senate Bill 5935 into law.
Featured Image: Via Governor Kathy Hochul’s YouTube
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Jason Noah Feinman of Calabasas in California, has pleaded guilty to operating an illegal offshore gambling business, evading taxes and laundering money in a statement released by the Office of Public Affairs at the US Department of Justice.
Feinman operated a Costa Rica-based business in which its main focus was to run a website that was used by illegal gambling businesses to assist various gambling activities for customers who lived in California. The details were apparently leaked in the notorious Panama Papers.

California Man Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion and Operating Illegal Offshore Gambling Businesshttps://t.co/TZYxzO6ZNh
— Criminal Division (@DOJCrimDiv) January 14, 2026

They were encouraged to place bets across various websites that Feinman used and maintained, which is, of course, illegal in California under state and federal law.
Feinman laundered the money by exchanging cash for checks, receiving more than $1.5 million in cash between 2018 and 2024.
Furthermore, he failed to declare his income, concealing more than $4 million from the US Government, thus paying no tax on any of this.
He will be sentenced in May this year and could face up to ten years for money laundering and a further five for tax evasion, along with illegal gambling charges made against him.
Illegal gambling operations have been prominent in California
Earlier this year, the San Diego Police Department raided an illegal gambling operation in a City Heights home.
A total of nine arrests were made at the scene, where illegal gambling machines were found, along with $4,500 and weapons.
In December 2025, San Diego Police searched two locations following an investigation into an illegal gambling operation within the same City Heights area.
Indeed, a total of 62 illegal gaming machines were found across the two properties, again, with cash and weapons also found within the gambling dens.
Two further operations were raided by the police in the summer of 2025, with a SWAT team dispatched to one location.
Featured Image: AI generated by Ideogram
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The Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong, has made his feelings known on the Senate’s crypto market structure bill, as he takes to social media to pull his support.
“After reviewing the Senate Banking draft text over the last 48hrs, Coinbase unfortunately can’t support the bill as written,” he says.
It was on Monday (January 12) when draft legislation was finally revealed, with this to create a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency. It was at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term when people stated they were expecting cryptocurrency to be a focus and the industry has since been waiting for legislation to exist.

After reviewing the Senate Banking draft text over the last 48hrs, Coinbase unfortunately can’t support the bill as written.
There are too many issues, including:
– A defacto ban on tokenized equities– DeFi prohibitions, giving the government unlimited access to your financial…
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) January 14, 2026

The recently introduced bill aims to clarify crypto tokens as securities or commodities which some would argue would provide clarity for many.
However, digging deeper into the bill, the Coinbase CEO says “there are too many issues.” He says this includes: “A defacto ban on tokenized equities, DeFi prohibitions – giving the government unlimited access to your financial records and removing your right to privacy, Erosion of the CFTC’s authority, stifling innovation and making it subservient to the SEC, (and) Draft amendments that would kill rewards on stablecoins, allowing banks to ban their competition.”
Coinbase CEO is optimistic the right outcome can be achieved
In his social media post, he continues to express appreciation for “all the hard work by members of the Senate to reach a bipartisan outcome,” but he says this version “would be materially worse than the current status quo.”
“We’d rather have no bill than a bad bill. Hopefully we can all get to a better draft.
“We’ll keep fighting for all Americans and for economic freedom. Crypto needs to be treated on a level playing field with the rest of financial services so we can build this industry in a safe and trusted way in America.”
While it’s likely not the support that was hoped for, the CEO adds another post to suggest he’s quite optimistic about the right outcome being achieved with continued effort.
Featured image: TechCrunch / Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 2.0
The post Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong pulls support for Senate’s crypto market structure bill appeared first on ReadWrite.