Lawmakers ramp up fight against sports betting on prediction markets

The political battle over sports betting on prediction markets is heating up as professional leagues dive deeper into the national gambling frenzy.

Lawmakers in both parties are attempting to stifle the growing popularity of sports betting on prediction markets as a top Trump administration regulator champions the new and controversial platforms.

An unlikely coalition of policymakers — ranging from staunch social conservatives to liberal critics of big business — is pushing back through legislation and litigation meant to limit where prediction markets can operate and what bets they can offer.

At the same time, major prediction market firms are deepening their roots in the sports world by signing lucrative partnerships with leagues while hemming closely to industry-friendly regulators.

“This is sad,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) recent sponsorship and data-sharing agreement with Polymarket, a popular prediction market platform.

“Pervasive gambling is not good for society. It turns life into a casino, traps people in addiction and debt, surges domestic violence, and fosters manipulation,” she continued.

MLB announced last week it struck a deal with Polymarket to make the platform the league’s “Official Prediction Market Exchange” and struck a separate memorandum of understanding with the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the main federal agency overseeing prediction markets.

The league is also teaming up with the CFTC to help monitor prediction markets, share information confidentially and meet regularly to discuss prediction market issues.

MLB’s announcement sparked a fresh wave of blowback as concerns grow in Washington about the rise of online wagering and potential insider trading.

Sports gambling has surged in popularity and accessibility in 2018, after the Supreme Court struck down a federal law banning the practice in states without specific........

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