While a U.S. Senate Commerce subcommittee is readying itself for its May 20 hearing about sports betting, four House members and one senator aren’t sitting idly by waiting to hear the results.
In a letter sent Monday, the quintet has asked 10 CEOs of sportsbooks and prediction markets to answer a dozen questions concerning online gambling in America.
“We write to you as Members of Congress to express our concern about the implications of online gambling, including sports betting, casino-style games, and prediction contracts, on the future of young Americans, whose lives are increasingly disrupted by these platforms. The social and human risks, coupled with the broader risks to our democratic institutions and society, demand your cooperation to address this crisis,” begins the letter.
The letter — from Reps. Valerie Foushee, Paul Tonko, Kevin Mullin, and Betty McCollum, along with Sen. Richard Blumenthal — was sent to the following gambling executives: DraftKings CEO Jason Robins, bet365 CEO Denise Coates, Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan, BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt, FanDuel CEO Christian Genetski, Fanatics CEO of Betting and Gaming Matthew King, Kalshi co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour, Caesars Entertainment CEO Thomas Reeg, Robinhood co-founder and CEO Vladimir Tenev, and SidePrize CEO Mike Ybarra.
The letter goes on to contend that online gambling, including sports betting, casino-style games, and prediction contracts, is reshaping young Americans’ lives in ways that demand industry cooperation and federal scrutiny.
Ad woes
Much of the lawmakers’ criticism centers on advertising. They single out Kalshi’s “Trade on Anything” campaign, citing a TikTok ad in which the on-screen text reads, “I was about to be unable to pay my rent, but I got two years of rent through Kalshi’s predictions. It’s amazing!” The letter suggests such messaging targets people already under financial stress and pitches gambling as a path to financial stability.
The lawmakers also flag bet365’s “Winning Is Everything” campaign, March Madness promotions, and prediction market partnerships with CNN, CNBC, Dow Jones, and Yahoo Finance, which they say have helped normalize a culture in which “everything is gambling.”
To make their case, the letter cites polling that reports 77% of Americans believe prediction market platforms could increase gambling-related harm among young adults, that 81% support requiring those platforms to comply with existing state gaming regulations, and that men ages 18-24 are nearly twice as likely as the general public to have used a prediction market, sportsbook, or daily fantasy app in the past six months. It also points to research linking the expansion of mobile sports betting to financial insecurity, reduced savings, higher rates of alcoholism, and spikes in crime and assaults following legalization.
The letter acknowledges that some of the companies have rolled out stronger age verification and problem gambling self-assessments. But the lawmakers describe those steps as “reactive measures, which are not legally binding, and do not address the structural harm of your platforms on young consumers.”
The 12 questions that close the letter ask the companies to disclose, among other things, what percentage of their active users are between 18 and 20; what share of revenue comes from users ages 18-24; what their average deposits, losses, and session lengths look like by age group; how much revenue is generated by users showing signs of problem gambling; and what internal policies govern advertising on platforms with substantial under-21 audiences, including TikTok.
The CEOs are asked to respond in writing by May 29 and to make staff available for a briefing.
