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To amend the Animal Welfare Act to prohibit gambling on animal fighting ventures, and for other purposes.
Summary
The bill amends the Animal Welfare Act to prohibit gambling on animal fighting ventures, including in-person and broadcast events. The new prohibition is added to existing laws that already prohibit sponsoring, exhibiting, or attending animal fighting ventures. Any person who gambles on an animal fighting venture would be subject to this prohibition under federal law.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Rep. Bacon, Don [R-NE-2] (R-NE)
Actions (2)
- May 11, 2026 Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture. · house
- May 11, 2026 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 11, 2026
Mr. Bacon introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture
A BILL
To amend the Animal Welfare Act to prohibit gambling on animal fighting ventures, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High- risk Trafficking Act of 2026” or the “FIGHT Act of 2026”.
SEC. 2. ANIMAL FIGHTING.
Section 26 of the Animal Welfare Act (7 U.S.C. 2156) is amended—
(1) by striking the section designation and header and all that follows through “It shall be unlawful” in subsection
(a)(2) and inserting the following:
“SEC. 26. SPONSORING OR EXHIBITING AN ANIMAL IN, ATTENDING, CAUSING AN INDIVIDUAL WHO HAS NOT ATTAINED THE AGE OF 16 TO ATTEND, OR GAMBLING ON, AN ANIMAL FIGHTING VENTURE.
“(a) Sponsoring or Exhibiting.—
“(1) In general.—It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly sponsor or exhibit an animal in an animal fighting venture.
“(2) Attending or causing an individual who has not attained the age of 16 to attend.—It shall be unlawful”; and
(2) in subsection (a), by adding at the end the following:
“(3) Animal venture gambling.—It shall be unlawful for any person to gamble on an animal fighting venture, including an in-person or broadcast event.”. <all>
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