Khanna calls on Congress to ban sports prediction markets

California Rep. Ro Khanna (D) on Tuesday called on Congress to ban sports prediction markets, raising concerns about how they “fuel addiction” and expose the American youth to “public health risks.”

“Sports prediction markets are sports betting disguised as financial trading. They flout state and tribal gambling laws, siphon state tax revenues, fuel addiction, and expose young Americans to public health risks while evading state consumer safeguards,” Khanna wrote in a post on social platform X on Tuesday.

Critics have previously tried to reign in the business of sports prediction markets, linking them to a growing number of Americans struggling with gambling addictions and calling for checks and balances in the industry to protect consumers.

“These prediction markets have almost gotten to be like insider trading, which makes me nervous,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told The Hill in July. “And with respect to sports, betting is a sad reality, that probably we cannot change, and is just draining money out of people’s pockets, especially young males in ways that is pretty destructive.”

Last year, Congress introduced the Supporting Affordability and Fairness with Every Bet Act also known as the SAFE Bet Act , which would have required the federal government to regulate online sports betting by banning gambling advertisements during live sporting events.

The bill, which aimed at curbing predatory practices in the sports betting industry and implementing safeguards for consumers, did not move beyond initial actions in March last year, and its future remains unclear.

In March, a bipartisan pair of senators, Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and John Curtis (R-Utah), introduced a bill to ban prediction markets from listing sports bets or casino-style games on their platforms.

“Sports prediction contracts are sports bets — just with a different name,” Schiff said in a statement earlier. “And yet, these contracts have been offered in all fifty states in clear violation of state and federal law.”