Congress Sets May 20 Showdown on Sports Betting and Match-Fixing Risks
Credit: RobertPlausible/Wikimedia Commons
The Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Technology and Data Privacy will convene a hearing on May 20 to examine whether the integrity of professional and college competition can survive the era of legal sports betting or whether Washington needs to step in.
Subcommittee Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn announced the hearing, titled “No Sure Bets: Protecting Sports Integrity in America,” and did so at a time of urgency, with critics claiming that the massive increase in popularity of sports betting has outpaced the safeguards that keep the industry honest.
Blackburn said in a statement announcing the hearing that “recent match-fixing scandals in professional sports have put a spotlight on the risks facing the integrity of competition.” She referred to the continuing presence of sportsbooks and prediction market platforms and stressed that authorities must have a clear understanding of how these platforms operate and what they mean for game integrity.
A $165 Billion Industry Under Scrutiny
The legal sports betting market did not exist in its current form just a decade ago. The Supreme Court’s decision in May 2018 ended the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act and opened the floodgates for widespread legalized betting on a state-by-state level. Individual states could, for the first time, decide to legalize and regulate sports betting.
Sports betting is now legal in 39 states and Washington, D.C., and the subcommittee’s announcement put the current market valuation at $165 billion. The first few years of the boom were largely celebrated, as leagues struck partnerships with sportsbook operators, states welcomed new tax revenues, and people gained access to a legal way to place bets on their favorite sports while swimming in promotional value.
However, the popularity of prop bets, which allows gamblers to bet on in-game micro-events like individual pitches or rebounds secured by a player, opened a door to a type of manipulation that many hadn’t anticipated.
A Year of Scandals
The timing of this hearing isn’t coincidental. Major scandals kept emerging throughout 2025 and early 2026.
In one week in November, the FBI met with the UFC about an allegedly rigged fight, prosecutors federally indicted two MLB pitchers over accusations that they manipulated pitches to help bettors, and the NCAA accused six former college basketball players from three schools of participating in gambling schemes.
Authorities also arrested Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier in October for allegedly faking an injury to exit a game early so bettors could win their player prop bets. The cumulative effect of these scandals has driven a rise in concern. Lawmakers now question whether fans can trust what they’re seeing on the field.
The Congressional Response
Senator Ted Cruz, who chairs the full Senate Commerce Committee, has made it clear that he sees federal intervention as a possible option to deal with the integrity issue. He said in the announcement for the upcoming hearing that, “Fans shouldn’t have to wonder if their favorite player missed a buzzer-beater or dropped a touchdown pass because of a secret bet.” He noted that “recent episodes” have raised doubts and questions about possible changes to protect the integrity of sporting events.
Officials have sent letters to major sports leagues to get details on how they plan to address the ongoing threats to integrity. Rep. Paul Tonko and Senator Richard Blumenthal have also introduced the SAFE Bet Act, which proposes uniform federal standards for marketing and affordability.
However, policymakers continue to debate the idea of a federal framework, as a myriad of state-level rules already exist, and leagues have invested heavily in proprietary integrity monitoring technology. Congress may focus on whether it can create a workable national standard during the May 20 hearing.
Who Will Testify
The subcommittee has put together a panel that will offer perspectives from across the industry and enforcement world. American Gaming Association CEO and President Bill Miller is expected to represent the broader commercial gambling industry, which has generally argued that the scandals reflect isolated criminal behavior and do not signal systemic failure.
Tennessee Sports Wagering Council Executive Director Mary Beth Thomas will offer a state-level regulator perspective. Integrity Compliance 360 Co-Founder and CEO Scott Sadin will bring direct experience from sports betting integrity monitoring. His company works with the majority of the major professional leagues and has flagged suspicious betting activity in some of last year’s high-profile cases.
The Honorable Patrick McHenry, the former House Financial Services Committee chairman, now serves as a senior adviser to the Coalition for Prediction Markets and is expected to talk about the growing role of prediction markets. The subcommittee’s press statement also noted that it may announce another witness before the hearing date.
The Prediction Market Dimension
The wider ongoing debate includes the rise of prediction markets, which allow users to trade on the outcomes of real-world events, including sports contests, in a way that blurs the lines between gambling and financial speculation. Their expansion adds to the difficult job of integrity monitors, especially as they offer such a wide range of markets. Recent months have also seen insider trading scandals affect these markets.
The hearing’s focus on prediction markets alongside traditional sports betting shows that regulators are beginning to view the two as part of the same regulatory challenge.
The May 20 hearing serves as a fact-finding exercise, as lawmakers are not voting on legislation and do not expect immediate regulatory action to follow.
However, political pressure continues to build as gambling scandals and insider trading cases dominate headlines. The industry will watch the livestream of the hearing closely to see whether lawmakers seriously discuss a new federal integrity framework.
Image credit: Robert Plausible/Wikimedia Commons (license)
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