Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) are widening a congressional campaign to force federal oversight and consumer protections onto prediction markets, aligning with public-health advocates who argue the fast-growing industry has outrun the rules meant to contain it.
The two lawmakers appeared this week alongside the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) and Families and Friends of Gamblers (FFOG) to launch what the groups are calling Truth and Integrity: The Movement for Gambling Reform, according to sportsbettingdime.com. The initiative is built around three demands: congressional hearings and minimum federal safety standards, tougher state-level enforcement, and public pressure on operators to change how they treat customers.
Harry Levant, a board member of FFOG, framed the launch as a response to what he described as a mounting mental-health and public-health crisis tied to gambling addiction, telling sportsbettingdime.com the effort was only a starting point for a broader national reckoning. Blumenthal, at the same event, argued that the gambling industry – sportsbooks and prediction platforms alike – is exploiting vulnerable users to generate revenue, while Tonko said the goal is to take what he called an inherently addictive product and make it demonstrably safer, according to casino.org.
What the Lawmakers Are Backing
Blumenthal and Tonko are attaching that messaging campaign to two pieces of legislation already in motion. One is the long-running SAFE Bet Act, which would impose deposit limits, wager caps, and mandatory affordability checks on state-licensed sportsbooks – an effort earlier congressional legislation had already tried to advance without success.
The second is the newly filed Prediction Markets Security and Integrity Act, tracked on congress.gov as S.4060. Blumenthal’s own office describes the bill as barring prediction-market contracts tied to war, death, or military conflict, mandating insider-trading and manipulation safeguards, and shifting day-to-day oversight of prediction platforms away from the CFTC toward individual states, according to a press release from Blumenthal’s Senate office.
A Fight Over Who Regulates What
The push lands in the middle of an unresolved jurisdictional fight that has left prediction-market operators without a settled compliance picture. The broader congressional debate over regulatory authority has simmered since the CFTC pulled back its own rulemaking attempts, leaving states, Congress, and the agency all claiming a stake in how these contracts get policed.
The American Gaming Association has previously argued that state regulators already run comprehensive consumer-protection programs and don’t need a federal overlay, according to casino.org. Prediction-market operators have pushed back even harder on the substance of Blumenthal’s bill, maintaining that their products are financial instruments rather than gambling – a distinction that has also shaped a parallel Senate effort tied to tribal gaming concerns.
What Comes Next
S.4060 has not moved beyond committee referral, and no hearing date has been confirmed. Whether Blumenthal and Tonko can convert this week’s coalition launch into actual committee action – rather than another round of letters and press events – will determine whether prediction-market operators face real compliance deadlines or simply another news cycle of scrutiny.
The post A New Safety Push Puts Prediction Markets Under Scrutiny appeared first on ReadWrite.
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This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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