At G2E 2026, Casino and Sportsbook Leaders Make a United Case Against Prediction Markets
The Global Gaming Expo (G2E), the US casino and sports betting industry's largest annual trade conference, opened in Las Vegas on September 28 with prediction markets as the dominant topic on nearly every main-stage panel. Over the following days, top executives from several of the country's biggest licensed gaming companies and the industry's main trade group used their platforms to argue, in unusually blunt terms, that prediction-market operators offering sports event contracts should be held to the same licensing standards as regulated sportsbooks.
"Hurting the industry, full stop"
MGM Resorts CEO Bill Hornbuckle was among the most direct, telling attendees that prediction markets "are hurting the industry, full stop," and pointing out that operators can currently offer sports-related event contracts in states without legal sports betting — he cited Utah as an example — without obtaining a state gaming license. Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg drew a comparison to the early, loosely regulated expansion of daily fantasy sports roughly a decade ago, warning that a serious consumer-protection failure in the prediction-market space could damage confidence in the broader gaming industry. Reeg also noted, pointedly, that a market had appeared on at least one platform letting people bet on whether Caesars itself would go private in 2026.
Wynn Resorts CEO Craig Billings framed the risk in regulatory terms, warning that visible, unregulated activity tends to trigger public backlash and invite exactly the kind of federal or Congressional intervention the industry would rather avoid. American Gaming Association president and CEO Bill Miller delivered the sharpest remarks of the conference, comparing prediction-market operators to "bad guys who've kicked in the back door" while licensed sportsbooks "knock on the front door," and argued the platforms have been dismissive of state laws, regulators, tax obligations, and tribal gaming sovereignty.
Why this keeps surfacing at every industry gathering
The dispute centers on a jurisdictional gray area: prediction-market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket argue their sports-related contracts are federally regulated derivatives overseen by the CFTC, not state-licensed sports bets, letting them operate in states where traditional sports betting isn't legal. State regulators and licensed operators disagree, and the fight has already produced lawsuits, cease-and-desist orders, and injunctions in multiple states this year. G2E's main-stage panels made clear that, for the companies that spent years and significant money securing state licenses, the competitive and reputational stakes of that unresolved question have become impossible to ignore.
Why it matters to a US bettor
None of this changes the odds or product on any sportsbook app today, but it signals where industry pressure is pushing regulators and Congress next. If licensed operators succeed in forcing prediction markets onto the same regulatory footing as sportsbooks — age verification, state licensing, responsible-gaming requirements, and taxation among them — it could reshape which platforms remain available in states that currently sit outside the legal sports betting map. For background on the underlying legal dispute, see our coverage of New York's lawsuit against Polymarket and Kalshi's court-ordered geofencing in California.