As unregulated “prediction market” and other gambling platforms addict a growing number of Americans into financial ruin, concerns are emerging over how the gambling platforms are influencing politics as they increasingly lobby Congress and spend huge sums of money on midterm election campaigns.

On Monday, the NBA announced that it has entered into an agreement with the two leading prediction market platforms, Kalshi and Polymarket, to “use official league data and intellectual property and give the league control over what trades the companies are allowed to offer.” The move highlights the latest in a string of agreements that have helped the prediction market industry appear increasingly legitimate, as it has previously struck deals with the NHL and MLB as well as superstars like LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo.

But prediction market platforms remain in murky legal territory. After initially launching in 2021, the platforms offered users the ability to bet money via “event contracts” on whether almost any event will occur, including the weather, interest rate changes, corporate mergers, award show winners, and more. But last year, Kalshi and Polymarket began allowing users to bet on the outcomes of sporting events, which are regulated by state gaming boards. Since the two prediction market platforms operate under federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) rules, observers have pointed out that they have effectively become sports betting platforms that have escaped state regulations and hundreds of millions in state tax revenue.

This has led several states to file suit against Kalshi and Polymarket for violating state gambling laws. At the same time, reports are emerging indicating growing gambling addictions resulting from the prediction market platforms. In September alone, U.S. users bet almost $60 billion on Kalshi, the nation’s leading platform. This marked a year-over-year increase of over 2,000% from the $2.8 billion that was wagered last September.

But it’s not just growing gambling addictions that are raising concerns about the increasing influence of prediction markets. Experts say the platforms are contributing to a surge in influence that the burgeoning sports betting industry is having on lawmakers and elections.

“[I]n addition to what the prediction market companies are spending, you also have online gambling operators like DraftKings and FanDuel and others who have spent more than $75 million on these midterm elections,” Les Bernal, national director of Stop Predatory Gambling, pointed out during “Washington Watch” Monday. “So between the prediction markets and the online gambling operators, what they’re trying to do is buy influence to get legislators to look the other way from a public policy that by every measure has been an epic public policy failure. … [T]here’s no single act that our government does that inflicts more financial harm, more mental health harm, and more harm to the social well-being of American families than predatory gambling. So the only way they can cover that up is by spending relentlessly to get legislators to look the other way and try to influence our political process.”

Bernal went on to observe that the legal loopholes that prediction market platforms thrive in can only be sustained through increased political lobbying efforts.

“For Kashi and Polymarket and these other companies, the only way their business model survives is by partnering with public officials and getting their approval,” he noted. “And so, what they’re hoping to do, whether it’s through the Democrats and the Republicans — and Republicans, frankly, are just as bad on this issue as the Democrats are — is they use this so-called dark money to run their campaigns. But ultimately, it buys these companies major influence behind the scenes to perpetuate a product in these prediction markets and … other forms of online gambling that are inflicting life-changing harm on tens of millions of Americans.”

Bernal further contended that the gambling industry presents an ongoing conflict of interest for the government. “When government supposedly regulates commercialized gambling like prediction markets and other forms of gambling, they don’t regulate this to protect [the public]. The government regulates this to make sure it gets its fair cut of the profits. There’s an irreconcilable conflict of interest that exists between the government and the public on this, because the business practices that produce the most money for government are those business practices that inflict the most financial harm and public health harm. It’s the equivalent of putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank.”

Christian leaders like Mike Fabarez, who serves as a radio host and senior pastor of Compass Bible Church, say that believers must have a proper understanding of stewardship in order to inform a biblical worldview on gambling.

“[B]eing good stewards … we want it to be a win-win,” he explained during “Washington Watch” Monday. “Commerce and capitalism is a win-win. It’s not about me hoping that you will lose so that I can get rich. … [W]e teach our children to have a good Christian work ethic. We don’t want them to go around trying to gamble their lunch money nor trying to figure out how they can leverage their favorite sports team for some kind of advantage over the guy who’s rooting for the other team. This is not how we go about stewardship, and we certainly don’t want it in our politics.”

Fabarez went on to highlight how the prediction market and sports betting industry has not only targeted young men but has also enveloped older generations. “Gambling is an addictive process, and it really has spiraled people. I’ve got a whole church that knows the damage of people who have lost their income, they’ve lost their retirement, they’ve lost their homes because they’ve spiraled into addiction over gambling. And I think we as Christians need to disciple people, starting with our own lives and then our own families to stay away from this.”

“[W]e need to get our youth pastors to talk about this more often,” he added. “It is attacking our … young men. … We need to disciple our young men to learn a Christian work ethic. … [W]e need to teach our people not just to memorize a few verses and go through a few biblical principles. … [I]t lays on the shoulders of the senior leadership of the church to make sure that we know what the hot topics are, and there [are] a lot of hot topics — from drugs, alcohol, premarital sex, pornography. Now it’s gambling that has really kind of elbowed its way into a very destructive habit that’s become addictive. So it really behooves us to talk about it not just with young men, but it starts there.”