Blumenthal and Tonko widen gambling reform push to prediction markets

Senator Richard Blumenthal and Representative Paul Tonko have broadened their long-running campaign against sports betting to include prediction markets, framing both as part of a single, expanding online gambling problem, according to SBC Americas.

The pair joined the Public Health Advocacy Institute and Families and Friends of Gamblers on Wednesday to unveil a coalition called "Truth and Integrity: The Movement for Gambling Reform". It is pushing for congressional hearings, federal minimum safety standards, tougher state-level enforcement and public pressure on operators and their commercial partners.

Blumenthal said prediction markets prey on compulsive behaviour to drive profit. "Prediction markets are exploiting problem gambling, they are relentlessly and tirelessly taking advantage of vulnerability to simply make more money," he said, adding that the industry operates "invisibly but in plain sight".

Tonko argued prediction markets are functionally the same as sportsbooks and have grown rapidly in recent months. "In this new landscape, sports betting is everywhere, woven into the fabric of sports and entertainment," he said, adding that parents should be able to attend games with children without encountering betting advertising. He also compared today's sportsbooks to the tobacco industry decades ago.

A federal and state agenda

The coalition's federal agenda calls for investigative hearings, new minimum standards and legislation, while its state-level push seeks stronger regulation and enforcement, with organisers saying lawmakers in several states have already signalled support.

The launch cements a political alliance treating sportsbooks, prediction markets, technology platforms and sports organisations as elements of one consumer protection fight. Operators maintain that event contracts are federally regulated financial products, but Blumenthal and Tonko are pushing to bring them under state gambling oversight instead.

PHAI has also taken a more active legal role against the industry. In March it filed a product liability suit against DraftKings, FanDuel, Genius Sports and the NFL, alleging the companies built and marketed betting products around addictive live in-game microbetting.

A bill to settle the federal-state split

Earlier this year Blumenthal introduced the Prediction Markets Security and Integrity Act, which would set federal safeguards against insider trading, market manipulation, fraud and underage access, ban contracts tied to war, death or military action, mandate age verification, and limit advertising aimed at minors and self-excluded customers. The bill also seeks to push back against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's stance that federal commodities law overrides state gambling rules, an outcome state attorneys general and regulators are already pursuing through the courts.

The measure would additionally require states that permit sports betting to meet federal standards on advertising, affordability and artificial intelligence, linking the prediction markets fight to the wider consumer-protection agenda the two lawmakers have pursued for years.

In July, Blumenthal joined Senator Jeff Merkley and other Democratic senators in criticising the CFTC's approach to state gambling law, arguing that sports event contracts mirror traditional wagers while sidestepping the licensing, taxation, consumer-protection and responsible-gambling obligations placed on licensed operators. The legislation is designed to settle that federal-state dispute through Congress rather than the courts, after the Third and Ninth circuits reached conflicting rulings on the Commodity Exchange Act's scope. New Jersey and several operators have since asked the Supreme Court to resolve the split.

Building on the SAFE Bet Act

The prediction markets push extends a campaign built around the SAFE Bet Act, which Blumenthal and Tonko have repeatedly reintroduced to impose federal standards on advertising, affordability checks and AI use in states with legal sports betting, alongside separate bills funding gambling addiction prevention and treatment.

Their recent efforts have also targeted VIP schemes and athlete-driven marketing. Blumenthal, Tonko and Representative Valerie Foushee have urged FanDuel to shut down its VIP programme, arguing it can push customers, including people vulnerable to problem gambling, into heavier spending.