Gaming groups AGA and IGA join push for Senate sports-contract ban
The American Gaming Association (AGA) and the International Gaming Institute (IGA) called for a ban on sports event contracts ahead of a Senate hearing on July 21. Their testimony opposes prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket expanding into sports wagering. The intervention follows earlier lobbying by the Indian Gaming Association, which pressed senators to add sports and casino-style prediction market restrictions to the CLARITY Act to protect tribal gaming compacts.
For Kalshi and Polymarket, the AGA and IGA entry turns a tribal and legislative threat into a unified industry front. Both platforms have built substantial sports volume under CFTC registration, and a congressional ban would vaporize that revenue without waiting for courts. The Senate hearing signals lawmakers may move faster than regulators; the CFTC's June proposal to broaden sports contracts now looks politically fragile.
Kalshi is already stretched across state fights in Michigan, New York, Illinois, and New Mexico, plus a Second Circuit appeal. Adding a federal legislative front forces painful triage between defending state markets and lobbying Capitol Hill. Polymarket shares every exposure here. Traders holding sports positions face a new uncertainty: whether contracts will be grandfathered or forced to close if a ban passes.