US lawmakers ask six betting firms about VIP programs

Three members of Congress want six betting and prediction-market companies to explain their VIP programs. On 22 October, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Reps. Paul Tonko (D-NY) and Valerie Foushee (D-NC) wrote to BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings, Fanatics, Kalshi and Polymarket and asked for written answers by 5 November.

"As repeated stories from exploited gamblers and media reports have vividly documented, VIP programs are driving the gambling industry's most susceptible customers into debt and addiction through rewards tied to waging ever increasing amounts of money," the lawmakers wrote, as quoted by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

What the letters ask

According to SBC Americas, each company is asked:

• how many members its VIP or customer-tier program has;
• how members were betting or trading before they were enrolled;
• how customers qualify, and which betting or trading activity counts;
• whether members trying to reduce their betting or trading were given exclusive offers, what those offers were and how they changed the members' activity;
• whether it has sent videos from athletes or other celebrities to keep customers engaged;
• how much revenue its VIP program brings in;
• whether VIP managers contact customers to encourage them to gamble;
• whether and how it uses AI to track and target customers with promotions and perks.

The letters are requests, not subpoenas. Companies are not legally required to answer them by themselves, but the deadline and the questions are now public.

Why VIP schemes are under scrutiny

A VIP program gives a betting site's biggest customers extra treatment: a personal account manager, often called a VIP host, plus perks such as bonuses, gifts or event tickets. The concern is simple. The customers who bring in the most money are often the ones losing the most, and a host whose job is to keep them active can end up offering a reward to someone who is trying to stop.

That is why the question about players who tried to cut back matters most. For a reader, a tailored bonus that arrives just after you set a limit or slowed down is a warning sign, not a perk. It is still a bonus with terms attached, and its purpose is to bring you back.

How the inquiry started with FanDuel

The new letters extend an inquiry the same three lawmakers opened into FanDuel, which is owned by Flutter. In the summer it emerged that a FanDuel VIP manager had sent a personalised video of Philadelphia Phillies player Bryce Harper to a customer with a gambling problem. In their letter of 6 October to FanDuel CEO Christian Genetski, the lawmakers said that customer "had lost $1.5 million on bets on your platform". They also quoted FanDuel's 24 September reply, in which the company acknowledged sending "approximately 30 such videos of athletes and entertainers over the last two years" and said it "has not used personalized videos or messages to induce customers to continue gambling". The lawmakers asked for copies of every video and details of each recipient's betting by 20 October.

SBC Americas reports that FanDuel, in a further letter this week, called the videos "customer-appreciation gestures" and denied sending them to encourage continued gambling. FanDuel had earlier told the lawmakers it had no intention of ending its VIP program, SBC Americas reports. The Inquirer reports that Harper said he was paid to record the message through the video service Cameo but did not know FanDuel would use it to reward a VIP bettor.

Prediction markets are in the same inquiry

Kalshi and Polymarket are regulated federally by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, not by state gaming regulators, and say their products are financial contracts rather than gambling. The Inquirer reports that the letters note neither firm calls its rewards a VIP program: Kalshi's is Kalshi Platinum, and Polymarket runs "maker" and "taker" rebate programs. The lawmakers also wrote that "prediction markets are actively flouting safeguards established by state gambling authorities".

Kalshi told the Inquirer that it manages top traders by volume and does not take their wins and losses into account, and that it does not run targeted promotions when customers lose. We recently covered Ohio's warning to its licensees about prediction markets.

What the companies said so far

None of the six has answered the questions yet. Fanatics said it had received the request and "will respond in due course", and DraftKings said it would "respond accordingly once we have had a chance to review" the letter, according to the Inquirer. BetMGM and Caesars could not be reached by the newspaper. No response from Polymarket was reported.

The letters arrive as several states look at the same practices. In October the Massachusetts Gaming Commission asked operators how they use AI in marketing, and New York advanced rules that would ban AI-personalised promotions; see our report on New York's proposal and the Massachusetts questions. DraftKings is already under scrutiny over reports on AI-driven promotion targeting. Outside the US, Greece's regulator has sent a VIP questionnaire to 18 operators.

If gambling has stopped being fun, set a deposit limit or a break in your account, or use self-exclusion. In the US, the National Council on Problem Gambling's helpline is 1-800-GAMBLER.