HEWD Ranking Member Adams Raises Alarm Bells About Sports Betting on College Campuses

HEWD Ranking Member Adams Raises Alarm Bells About Sports Betting on College Campuses

WASHINGTON - Higher Education and Workforce Development (HEWD) Ranking Member Alma Adams (NC-12) delivered the following opening statement at today's HEWD Subcommittee hearing entitled, "The Rise of Sports Gambling on College Campuses."

"Let me start with the people this hearing is about: students. They are young adults. Many are living away from home for the first time, carrying debt, and holding a phone that now doubles as a casino.

"My colleagues are right to be worried about sports gambling. College students are especially susceptible to drugs and alcohol, and now gambling is becoming a problem too. Gambling addiction is tied to depression, anxiety, financial ruin, and in the worst cases, suicide. This is a public health crisis unfolding on campuses across America.

"But if we are serious about protecting students, we have to be honest about how we got here.

"For decades, sports betting was illegal in most of this country, with narrow exceptions. Then states were given the power to make their own choices, and they built rules: age limits, licensing, consumer protections, and restrictions on betting involving college athletes. Those laws reflect the judgment of voters and their elected representatives.

"Prediction markets have blown a hole straight through them. By calling a bet an 'event contract,' companies like Kalshi and Polymarket claim they aren't gambling operations at all, but financial exchanges, so state law doesn't apply. Call it whatever you like. When a college student can wager on a game from his phone, in a state that prohibits it, that is sports betting by another name.

"Congress gave the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) responsibility for overseeing these markets. The CFTC is supposed to be the cop on the beat. The NCAA has asked it to suspend college sports prediction markets until real safeguards are in place. Instead, the cop seems to have left the beat.

"So, we have to ask 'why?'.

"My colleagues on the House Judiciary Committee are investigating a firm called 1789 Capital. Donald Trump Jr. became a partner days after the 2024 election. The firm took a stake in Juul, and the FDA then approved Juul's products. The firm also owned a piece of Polymarket. A week after the Justice Department closed its investigation, the CFTC approved a deal that let Polymarket back into the U.S. market.

"I want to be careful. These are questions under investigation, and Mr. Trump Jr. will have a chance to answer them. But the pattern is hard to ignore: the regulator steps back, and the President's family profits.

"And the ones left unprotected are students.

"The through-line here is predation. Predatory products, aimed at young people, shielded from state law, and overseen by a regulator that is asleep at the wheel.

"Regardless of who profits, students pay. Their grades, their savings, their mental health, and sometimes even their lives.

"We should put students' safety and well-being ahead of anyone's financial interests, especially the President's family. That means restoring states' ability to enforce their laws, demanding real age verification, requiring the CFTC to do its job, and answering the questions my colleagues have asked.

"I look forward to discussing how colleges, regulators, and sports leagues can work collaboratively to protect young adults from the tremendous potential harms of sports gambling and prediction markets.

"Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back."

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