WASHINGTON — Prediction market companies Kalshi and Polymarket are ramping up lobbying and hiring well-connected operatives from both parties as they try to keep states from regulating bets on sports contracts as gambling, according to a report released Tuesday by the advocacy group Demand Progress.
The report, titled “Prediction Markets’ Bet on Influence,” says Kalshi spent $1.8 million on lobbying in the first half of 2026, nearly triple the $615,000 the company spent in all of 2025.
According to the group, Kalshi has hired former Obama administration official Stephanie Cutter, former Biden administration official John Bivona, former senior Republican floor staffer Tony Hanagan and former Democratic congressional staffer Jed Bhuta. Polymarket hired former Trump campaign adviser David Urban, the group said.
The report also says an industry group, the Coalition for Prediction Markets, which Demand Progress called the industry’s “front group,” hired former Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York as its president and former Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry, a past chair of the House Financial Services Committee, as a senior adviser. Donald Trump Jr. holds paid advisory roles with both Kalshi and Polymarket, according to the group.
“State and tribal laws are one of the last lines of defense we have against predatory prediction market companies,” said Ella Fanger, corporate power policy advisor at Demand Progress. She called the companies “gambling websites that should not be able to evade sensible regulation” and said, “The government must reject this dangerous influence buying scheme.”
Fanger argued that without state and tribal oversight, the companies would expose the country to legalized sports betting and what she described as insider trading.
Prediction markets let users trade contracts on the outcomes of future events, including elections and sporting events. The platforms are overseen by the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and several states have challenged their sports contracts as unlicensed gambling.
Demand Progress, which describes itself as a grassroots, nonpartisan organization, previously urged the CFTC to reject efforts to weaken state gambling laws.
This report is based on information from Demand Progress.
Source: Demand Progress
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