LAS VEGAS — The leaders of Nevada’s three largest gaming operators reaffirmed warnings Tuesday that sports prediction markets are operating outside state gambling laws and could invite a broader backlash against the gaming industry.
- Caesars, MGM, and Wynn executives warned that sports prediction markets could undermine state-regulated gaming.
- The CEOs argued prediction markets should obtain state gaming licenses to operate alongside licensed sportsbooks.
- AGA CEO Bill Miller said prediction platforms are challenging state laws, tax systems, and tribal gaming authority.
Caesars CEO Tom Reeg rejected the argument that calling a sports wager a federally regulated swap changes what customers are doing. Speaking during a panel at Tuesday’s Global Gaming Expo, he compared the current market to the early years of daily fantasy sports, when companies operated before states established clearer rules for the product.
Reeg said he was less concerned about losing a generation of younger customers to prediction platforms than about what could happen while sports contracts operate outside the safeguards required of licensed sportsbooks. A serious incident during that period, he said, could damage the reputation of the entire industry, including companies that stayed in regulated markets.
He offered an example of the breadth of contracts that could be listed: a market on whether Caesars would go private in 2026, which ultimately happened earlier this year. Reeg said he could see no rule that would have prevented him from trading on the outcome, though he did not do so.
I've attended most G2E events in the past 10 years. AGA President Bill Miller has never been so intense in his opening. Typically a chance to highlight accomplishments, Miller used most of his address as a rallying cry, saying prediction markets have led to "war time footing"
— Ryan Butler (@butlerbetstrade) September 29, 2026
Wynn CEO Craig Billings raised a related concern about public reaction. In other markets, he said, participants have pushed activity to the point that it produces societal resistance and new regulation. The prospect of Congress becoming involved in a gaming regulatory issue should concern the industry, he said, especially after the industry’s long-standing state-by-state approach.
MGM CEO Bill Hornbuckle said the ability to offer sports contracts in states that have not legalized sports betting, without obtaining a state gaming license, is a long-term threat to regulated gaming. He pointed to Utah, where gambling is prohibited, and said prediction market operators should be willing to follow the same rules as licensed sportsbooks in states such as Nevada.
“(Prediction markets) are hurting the industry, full stop,” Hornbuckle said.
Gaming stakeholders don’t hold back
The CEOs’ objections come amid disputes over whether federal commodities law permits exchanges to list sports event contracts nationwide or whether states can apply their gambling laws to those products.
Prediction market operators maintain that their contracts are a form of financial trading that falls under federal oversight and are not subject to state regulations. State regulators and gaming interests argue that sports contracts amount to wagering and require state authorization, a stance that has become even more hardened in recent months across a growing wave of legal battles in courthouses nationwide.
American Gaming Association CEO Bill Miller preceded the CEO panel with an even sharper attack in his G2E keynote. The leader of the nation’s leading gaming advocacy group said prediction market platforms dismiss state laws, regulators, tax systems, and tribal sovereignty while competing with companies that must comply with those requirements.
“While we knock on the front door, there's a new group of well-funded bad guys who've kicked in the back door,” Miller said.
Miller contrasted the platforms with licensed gaming operators, citing the industry’s jobs, tax payments, and responsible gaming obligations. He also criticized the presentation of sports contracts as investments to younger customers. Prediction market companies have defended their products as financial contracts overseen by federal regulators.
His remarks echoed the position he took during a panel at the conference Monday alongside tribal gaming leaders. There, Miller said exchanges had stretched the Commodity Exchange Act, the law governing their products, beyond its intended use.
“Their best days are behind them,” he said during that panel. “Their house of cards is falling apart.”
In the Tuesday keynote, Miller pointed to opposition from governors, attorneys general, state lawmakers, and tribal leaders, as well as proposals in Congress addressing sports prediction markets. He said the fight reaches beyond the commercial casino industry because states and tribes also stand to lose authority over gambling within their borders.
That argument has aligned major gaming companies across most of the nation, particularly in the United States' gambling capital. Hornbuckle and Reeg said prediction platforms should have a path into states only where they have secured gaming licenses.
“If they want to come in Nevada and pay a license, and do what we all do, God bless them,” Hornbuckle said.
