Betting on Compliance: Regulatory Challenges for Online Sports Betting Apps

The explosive growth of online sports betting in the United States over the past decade has created a complex regulatory frontier for digital wagering platforms. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on sports gambling in Murphy v. NCAA, states have individually determined how and whether to legalize mobile sports wagering. This state-by-state patchwork, combined with the rise of innovative betting products, has generated compliance challenges in age verification, geolocation enforcement, consumer protection, anti-money laundering obligations, and advertising—issues that extend far beyond traditional in-person gambling regulation.

The Removal of the Endangerment Finding and its Aftershocks

The endangerment finding (EF) is the bedrock of environmental regulation within the United States. Founded on the basis of the the ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the “endangerment finding,” which declares two things. First, that greenhouse gases threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations. Second, that the combined emissions of the greenhouse gases from motor vehicles contributes to overall greenhouse gas pollution, which in turn also threatens public health and welfare. This was the case. The EPA has repealed this finding. Now, the EPA lacks statutory authority under Section (a)(1) of the Clean Air Act (CAA), to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for motor vehicles and other industries. Now, the EPA is no longer legally required to regulate pollutants such as GHGs. There is no longer any federal legal foundation to regulate vehicle, industrial or power plant emissions.

Regulating Minors in Digital Spaces

With the digital age, young children are gaining access to social media accounts. Child influencers are being put into the spotlight before they can understand the impact a lack of privacy can have on their lives. Children cannot meaningfully consent to having a digital footprint, states have a compelling interest in regulating child participation online. These legal safeguards are necessary for both the financial and psychological health of children in digital spaces. Just as states have long regulated child labor in the entertainment industry, the modern regulation of social media should provide the same protection for minors on social media.

Super Bowl Betting and the Rise of Prediction Markets

The Super Bowl remains the most watched sporting event in the United States, drawing billions in legal and illegal wagers each February. In recent years, a new form of wagering known as prediction markets has emerged, allowing users to trade on event outcomes in ways that resemble both sports betting and financial derivatives. These trading platforms raise compliance challenges because they intersect with both federal derivatives regulation and state gambling laws. At the same time, the NFL has taken their own stance, which is to restrict prediction markets from advertising around the Super Bowl. As a result, prediction markets tied to the Super Bowl exist in a regulatory gray area that demands clearer oversight to protect consumers and legal betting markets.

AI Data Centers and Rising Electric Bills

Electric bills are rising in many places, and the rapid expansion of AI data centers is adding new pressure to the power system. The big issue is how the electric grid pays for the infrastructure needed to serve rapidly growing electricity demand tied to AI. Serving that demand can require costly upgrades to the electric grid as well as securing additional electricity supply. When those costs are recovered through broadly applied rates instead of being assigned to the large new loads that triggered them, residential customers can see higher bills. State commissions and federal regulators influence these outcomes through tariffs, cost-allocation rules, and market design. As AI electricity use accelerates, questions of fairness and reliability have moved to the forefront of energy regulation.

The Shift from Lawmaking to Enforcement: State Privacy Regulation and Multi-State Coordination in 2026

The United States has reached a critical inflection point in data privacy regulation. Today, twenty states have adopted comprehensive privacy laws creating an increasingly complex array of regulatory requirements that interstate businesses must adhere to. Since the federal government has yet to enact universal privacy legislation and none coming in the foreseeable future, companies face mounting stress to navigate divergent state requirements while contending with a historic shift toward coordinated multi-state enforcement efforts.

Trump’s Executive Order Signals Federal Disruption for New State AI Laws

In the absence of comprehensive federal artificial intelligence (AI) legislation, states have moved aggressively to regulate AI. Beginning January 1, 2026, several major state AI laws imposed new safety and accountability obligations on AI developers. Just weeks before those laws took effect, President Trump’s Administration issued an executive order signaling a shift toward federal deregulation and preemption. The result is a looming conflict between state enforcement and federal resistance that is likely to continue to define the United States AI regulation in 2026.

Synthetic Media, Real Harm: Regulating AI-Generated Deepfakes

Carolyn Nsimpasi
Associate Editor
Loyola University Chicago School of Law, JD 2026
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has enabled the creation of highly realistic synthetic media, commonly known as deepfakes. These AI-generated images, videos, and audio recordings can convincingly replicate real people, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish truth from fabrication. While deepfake technology has legitimate uses in entertainment, education, and accessibility, its growing misuse presents significant social, political, and ethical risks. As a result, the regulation of AI-generated deepfakes has become an urgent necessity.

Adderall Shortages: Regulatory Compliance and Enforcement Risks in the Big-Pharma Ecosystem

Since October 2022, the United States has been grappling with an ongoing shortage of Adderall, a cornerstone prescription stimulant for millions of Americans. What began as intermittent shortages due to manufacturing disruptions has evolved into a prolonged supply constraint affecting patients, providers, and regulators. Behind this shortage lies a complex overlap of regulatory frameworks, legal reporting obligations, and compliance risks that are present across the pharmaceutical industry. Thus, the Adderall shortage is not simply a manufacturing hiccup. It is a case study in how overlapping regulatory regimes can collectively constrain supply in ways that neither regulators nor companies can easily fix in real time. Thus, ensuring sustainable access to ADHD medications and promoting proper use will require clearer authority, better data integration, and shared accountability across drug regulators and the Big-Pharma industry. Without these reforms, shortages will remain a recurring crisis to manage, rather than a systemic problem to prevent.

The Real Problem with Affordable Housing in America is Not Large Institutional Investors

“To preserve the supply of single-family homes for American families and increase the paths to homeownership,” President Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 20th, 2026, preventing “large institutional investors” from buying “single-family home[’s].” The definitions of “large institutional investor” and “single-family home” are to be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, by February 19th. However, even with an expansive definition of what constitutes a “large institutional investor,” this executive order seems likely to fall short of its intended goal. Large institutional investors account for too small of a share of single-family homeowners in the United States for this executive order to have any significant impact on housing affordability. Instead, to support housing affordability President Trump’s administration should focus on loosening credit standards, incentivizing home builders, and adopting economic policies to curb inflation, which in turn will lead to mortgage rate reductions.