{"id":2874,"date":"2026-05-22T13:09:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/?p=2874"},"modified":"2026-05-22T13:09:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:09:28","slug":"hiding-in-plain-sight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/bettingjobs-complianceandmore-partnerships\/hiding-in-plain-sight\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiding in plain sight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>No hiding place:<\/strong> A Senate subcommittee on Wednesday scrutinized the growth of sports betting and sports integrity, but senators spent most of the hearing on prediction markets, questioning whether they are, in fact, just sportsbooks.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The rise in popularity of prediction markets has prompted multiple bills in Congress aimed at tightening oversight.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Marsha, my dear:<\/strong> Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee and chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Technology and Data Privacy, claimed Americans are now more exposed to sports betting because of the rise of prediction markets.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>She admitted during the hearing that prediction markets \u201crepresent financial innovation across many sectors.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>But the nature of sports event contracts has sparked \u201creal concerns that they function mostly like traditional sports betting without the enforcement of state regulators, attorney generals.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>In the looper:<\/strong> Prediction markets drew widespread criticism during the two-hour hearing, including concern over their advertising practices, regulatory disputes and threats to national security.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Senator John Hickenlooper, a Democrat from Colorado, said in his opening remarks that prediction markets \u201cpose the same risks to consumers as online sports betting.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>This despite its proponents claiming they are investments and not subject to state or tribal gambling laws.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThis workaround is merely a way for prediction markets to skirt state consumer protection laws,\u201d he added.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Act of war:<\/strong> Concerns extended beyond sports, as lawmakers expressed concern over wagers placed on prediction markets concerning US military operations in Venezuela and Iran.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Patrick McHenry, senior advisor with The Coalition for Prediction Markets, assured lawmakers that Kalshi and other companies he represents believe contracts on war and assassination are illegal and \u201cnot in the public interest.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Texas fold\u2019em:<\/strong> The hearing marked the first time prediction markets were discussed along with regulated sports betting in a congressional hearing. Should Congress pass legislation restricting sports event contracts, users in states \u2013 such as Texas, Utah and Georgia \u2013 without legal sports betting would lose access to prediction markets.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz argued that sports events contracts are \u201cfor all intent and purposes, sports bets.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>The hearing, Cruz said, was not about \u201crolling back legalized gambling in states that have chosen to offer it,\u201d but to \u201cpreserve the integrity and authenticity in sports.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Back door man:<\/strong> Bill Miller, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association, testified that the legal gaming industry operates under strict rules regarding age verification, AML compliance, advertising standards, integrity monitoring and flagging suspicious activity.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Prediction markets \u201cdon\u2019t comply with most of these important regulatory protections, and they allow 18-year-old teenagers to bet on sports,\u201d Miller said.<\/li>\n<li>He also warned that the gaming integrity frameworks were being undermined by so-called prediction markets that are evading state, local and tribal authorities, costing $1bn in tax revenue.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThese so-called prediction markets are deceptively calling sports betting, financial contracts and investing,\u201d Miller added.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cDespite messaging designed to beguile policymakers and the public, they are increasingly being exposed as back door sports-betting operations.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Miller called for states to regulate sports event contracts, arguing that these platforms \u201cjeopardize the integrity of sports.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Regulatory debate:<\/strong> \u201cPrediction markets, aided by a rogue Commodity Futures Trading Commission, are making a mockery of congressional intent,\u201d Miller said. \u201cThe prediction markets are running national sportsbooks, and it\u2019s time to hold them accountable in the same way we are.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>McHenry stressed that casinos and sportsbooks and prediction markets are fundamentally different products, and subject to different regulatory structures. \u201cConflating the two does little to advance our shared goal of protecting consumers,\u201d he said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>On the beat:<\/strong> He also defended the Commission\u2019s regulatory role. \u201cThe CFTC, as the cop on the beat, has the capacity to oversee this market, just as they\u2019ve done with the broader commodities marketplace that\u2019s been around and well versed for decades,\u201d he told lawmakers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s the first I\u2019ve heard of it: <\/strong>Hickenlooper responded: \u201cYou\u2019re the first person who\u2019s told me you think the CFTC is up to the standards.\u201d He noted that 90% of the trades on Kalshi and 40% on Polymarket are on sports event contracts.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Miller was blunt in his assessment of the CFTC, saying federal regulators \u201care absolutely not competent to handle this.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIt was never Congress\u2019s intent to create a federal department of gambling through the CFTC,\u201d he said.<\/li>\n<li>The hearing did not result in any new legislative proposals.<\/li>\n<li>However, Blackburn said it allows lawmakers \u201cto start to build to where we have to move in regulation and also looking at the system to what should be federal and what should be state.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/complianceandmore.substack.com\/p\/hiding-in-plain-sight\">Like what you have read? Click HERE to access the full article!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No hiding place: A Senate subcommittee on Wednesday scrutinized the growth of sports betting and sports integrity, but senators spent most of the hearing on prediction markets, questioning whether they are, in fact, just sportsbooks. The rise in popularity of prediction markets has prompted multiple bills in Congress aimed at tightening oversight. Marsha, my dear:&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bettingjobs-complianceandmore-partnerships"],"acf":[],"post_author_name":"","post_authors_type":"","post_authors_from_team_members":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2877,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2874\/revisions\/2877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/2876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bettingjobs.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}