Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) was stunned by Major League Baseball\u2019s deal with Polymarket.<\/p>\n
Blumenthal isn\u2019t buying that there\u2019s any meaningful difference between traditional sports betting and sports event contracts on prediction-market platforms, and he thinks the MLB-Polymarket deal<\/a> is lending the industry legitimacy it has not earned.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt is astonishing and appalling that Major League Baseball would, in effect, be complicit in this,\u201d Blumenthal tells Front Office Sports.<\/p>\n Alongside Sen. Andy Kim (D., N.J.), he introduced the Prediction Markets Security and Integrity Act on March 11<\/a>. The bill would establish safeguards to protect against insider trading and market manipulation and ban markets on war, death, and military action.\u00a0<\/p>\n It would also treat sports event contracts like traditional sports betting by requiring companies to operate under state-approved gambling programs, while curbing the role of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission by removing platforms\u2019 ability to claim exemption under the Commodity Exchange Act.\u00a0<\/p>\n Currently, platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket make sports event contracts available in almost every state\u2014minus Nevada, which has won early court rulings<\/a> against both, as well as Coinbase<\/a>. Those decisions temporarily prevent the companies from offering such contracts in the state.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is part of the public health crisis,\u201d Blumenthal tells FOS. \u201cIt\u2019s a concentrated and purposeful effort to circumvent state rules and laws that provide guardrails on sports betting.\u201d<\/p>\n He was not moved by the CFTC\u2019s recent advisory that teased new rules<\/a> for the prediction-market industry and acknowledged certain sports offerings are particularly susceptible to manipulation. The CFTC, established in 1974, has historically regulated the derivatives market and trading of commodities like grains and oil.<\/p>\n \u201cThe CFTC shouldn\u2019t be regulating this,\u201d Blumenthal says. \u201cWhat does the CFTC know about sports betting?\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s particularly concerned about younger people being allowed to use prediction markets. Kalshi and Polymarket allow people 18 and older to use their apps. For regulated sports betting, many states require users to be at least 21.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat they\u2019ve done is taken the format of sports betting and just put it in a new app where there are less rules, and it\u2019s allowing younger people in,\u201d Blumenthal says. \u201cIt\u2019s a form of what I have begun calling an \u2018addiction conspiracy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Blumenthal is not just singling out the prediction-market industry; he has similar misgivings about traditional sports betting. In 2024, he teamed with Rep. Paul D. Tonko (D., N.Y.) to introduce the SAFE Bet Act. That legislation, which the lawmakers reintroduced<\/a> last year, seeks to ban exploitative practices<\/a> like promotions that target losing bettors.\u00a0<\/p>\n He and Kim are among a growing number of lawmakers\u2014on both sides of the aisle<\/a>\u2014who have taken notice of the prediction-market explosion. At least eight bills have been introduced in recent weeks<\/a> seeking to put stronger prediction-market protections in place. Blumenthal is open to the idea of joining with many lawmakers to propose a single, comprehensive prediction-market bill, as opposed to the piecemeal legislation that has been taking place.<\/p>\n \u201cI have definitely thought about it,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s an idea that should have bipartisan support.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) was stunned by Major League Baseball\u2019s deal with Polymarket. Blumenthal isn\u2019t buying that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-576966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}