Casino workers demand Congress act on prediction markets
Table of contents
- UNITE HERE president Gwen Mills says more than 100,000 of its members working in tribal and commercial casinos face a threat from unregulated prediction market sports betting.
- The union’s statement arrives as the US gambling sector absorbs a wave of redundancies, with Penn Interactive, IGT and others cutting hundreds of roles in 2026.
- Bipartisan Senate bill S.4160, introduced by Senator Adam Schiff, would prohibit CFTC-registered exchanges from listing sports and casino-style event contracts.
The largest gaming workers’ union in the United States has issued a direct challenge to Congress over prediction markets, demanding a ban on sports event contracts as the regulated gambling sector absorbs a sustained wave of job losses.
UNITE HERE, which says more than 100,000 of its members work in tribal and commercial casinos, published a statement last week on 4 June from President Gwen Mills demanding immediate legislative action.
The union argues that platforms including Kalshi and Polymarket are effectively conducting illegal sports betting in violation of tribal sovereignty and state gambling laws, cutting into the revenue base that supports regulated casino employment.
Gwen Mills, president of UNITE HERE, said:
“Prediction markets are putting good, union jobs in the gaming industry at risk. Over 100,000 UNITE HERE members work in Tribal and commercial casinos. Their livelihoods are now threatened by prediction markets conducting illegal sports betting in violation of Tribal sovereignty and state laws across the country.
“Congress must take immediate action to ban prediction markets from conducting sports betting and casino style games.
“Good casino jobs allow our members to buy their first homes, send their kids to college, and quit second jobs to spend more time with their families. We will not allow prediction markets to attack our jobs and turn back our progress.”
Jobs already under fire
The union’s intervention comes at a moment of acute employment pressure across the gambling industry, in the US and beyond. Companies have cited a mix of slower growth, AI-driven restructuring, and post-merger integration as drivers of job cuts throughout 2026.
Penn Entertainment cut more than 75 roles from its Penn Interactive division in May, affecting staff across theScore Bet, online casino and social gaming operations.
That same week, Gambling.com Group announced plans to cut around 25% of its workforce, approximately 150 roles, as part of an AI-first restructure targeting $13m in annualised savings.
IGT eliminated around 700 positions globally in March, following Apollo’s $6.3bn acquisition of its Gaming & Digital division and Everi Holdings.
Outside of the US, Israeli sports data provider LSports also confirmed redundancies in May as CEO Dotan Lazar pivoted the business toward automation. In Europe, Lottomatica cut 348 roles at its Serbian subsidiary following a platform migration after its €639m acquisition of SKS365.
The legislative push
UNITE HERE has endorsed S.4160, the Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act, introduced by Senator Adam Schiff of California with co-sponsors John Curtis of Utah and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada.
The bill would amend the Commodity Exchange Act to bar CFTC-registered entities from listing or clearing contracts related to sporting events, athletic competitions, or casino-style games.
The bill has drawn early bipartisan interest, including from senators representing major gaming states and more gambling-averse jurisdictions. Cortez Masto has accused the CFTC of failing to stop sports betting on prediction markets and effectively greenlighting their expansion under the current administration.
Mills framed the issue as urgent as the Senate considers broader cryptocurrency market-structure legislation, urging Congress to reaffirm that gambling regulation belongs with tribal and state authorities before that process advances further.
Industry pressure mounts
UNITE HERE’s statement follows a mid-May Senate hearing at which AGA president Bill Miller told a subcommittee that prediction markets are circumventing state and tribal regulatory frameworks.
Miller told senators that some prediction markets are effectively functioning as nationwide sports betting platforms, bypassing systems established following the repeal of PASPA in 2018. He said sports-related contracts now make up the vast majority of activity on at least one CFTC-regulated platform, with volumes having surged since 2024.
A group of US House members has separately asked the Federal Trade Commission to review marketing claims made by prediction market operators, focusing on whether companies promote their products using gambling-style language to consumers while describing the same products to regulators as financial trading instruments.
Keep reading
Do you have a story worth sharing?
Send it over to our editors!
