The AGA Is in Crisis: DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics, and bet365 All Left — Now What?

The American Gaming Association has spent years positioning itself as the unified voice of the U.S. gambling industry. That unity has officially fractured. In less than six months, four of the biggest names in online sports betting — DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics, and bet365 — have all walked out the door. And with a Senate hearing on the horizon, the AGA is heading into arguably the most consequential lobbying moment of its existence without the companies that once made it formidable.

How the AGA Lost Its Biggest Members

The departures were driven almost entirely by one issue: prediction markets. Platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket entered the sports-wagering space in 2025, offering event contracts on game outcomes in all 50 states under federal oversight from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — without needing state gambling licenses. The AGA drew a hard line, calling sports event contracts a form of illegal gambling and vowing to defend the state-regulated framework. That stance put the association on a collision course with its own online operator members.

DraftKings and FanDuel went first, each confirming their resignation on November 18, 2025. Both had already telegraphed their intentions during Q3 2025 earnings calls — DraftKings through its acquisition of federally licensed event-contracts platform Railbird, and FanDuel through a CFTC-regulated partnership with CME Group. When the AGA made clear that prediction market participants would not be welcome, the two companies made their choice. DraftKings Predictions launched on December 19, 2025, across 38 states. FanDuel Predicts followed three days later.

Fanatics was next. The company launched Fanatics Markets on December 3, 2025, and left the AGA within a week. Vice President of Communications Kevin Hennessy acknowledged the organization’s broader contributions to the regulated industry while noting that Fanatics “has a difference of opinion on what that means when it comes to prediction markets.” bet365 followed in March 2026, though its stated reason was different — a spokesperson said the company was pulling back because of the AGA’s focus on the retail casino industry rather than digital-first operators. Regardless of the specific rationale, the result is the same: the AGA has no purely online sportsbook operators left among its membership.

What the AGA Actually Does — and Why This Matters

The AGA is Washington’s primary lobbying body for the regulated gaming industry. It advocates for state-licensed casinos, tribal operators, and sportsbooks before Congress, shapes public policy debates, and publishes research that frames the narrative around legal gaming. Bill Miller, the AGA’s president and CEO, has been one of the loudest voices warning that prediction markets threaten the consumer protections and tax structures that state-regulated betting was built on. That argument carries less weight, however, when the companies who built those very sportsbooks are no longer in the room.

The structural consequence is significant. As the Sports Business Journal reported in January 2026, the departing operators effectively expanded the rival Sports Betting Alliance, bringing in former AGA communications head Joe Maloney as its new CEO. The SBA now handles lobbying for DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics, BetMGM, and bet365 — but critically, the SBA does not take a unified position on prediction markets, since its members are split on the issue. That leaves the AGA as the primary institutional voice opposing prediction markets in Washington, arguing that position without the online industry heavyweights who gave it credibility on digital gambling issues.

The May 20 Senate Hearing

On May 20, 2026, the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Technology, and Data Privacy will convene a hearing titled “No Sure Bets: Protecting Sports Integrity in America.” Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, who chairs the subcommittee, called the session in response to a wave of match-fixing and insider-betting scandals across the NBA, MLB, UFC, MLS, and NCAA. Senator Ted Cruz framed the issue plainly: fans should not have to wonder whether a missed shot or a dropped pass was intentional.

The witness list reflects the newly divided landscape. Bill Miller will testify on behalf of the AGA, representing the land-based casino and state-regulated gambling framework. Sitting alongside him will be Mary Beth Thomas, executive director of the Tennessee Sports Wagering Council, and Scott Sadin, co-founder of integrity monitoring firm Integrity Compliance 360. The fourth witness is former Congressman Patrick McHenry, now a senior advisor to the Coalition for Prediction Markets — a group that includes Kalshi, Coinbase, Robinhood, and Crypto.com, and which is expected to spend millions in 2026 defending the CFTC-regulated model.

It is the first time a Senate body has formally brought prediction markets into a hearing on sports. And the AGA will be making its case without the companies that handle the largest share of online wagering in the United States. Miller has been consistent in his position, writing in a December 2025 membership letter that “sports event contracts are gambling, and gambling is regulated by states and tribes.” That message will land differently before Congress now that it comes from a coalition that no longer includes the operators most bettors actually use.

A $165 Billion Industry at a Fork in the Road

The AGA’s own Q1 2026 Gaming Industry Outlook, published May 7, captures the tension well. The survey of 26 senior gaming executives found the industry in an optimistic mood overall — the Gaming Conditions Index rose 1.5% year over year, executive sentiment reached its highest positive reading since Q3 2022, and more than 60% of respondents expect higher revenues and increased capital investment over the next six to 12 months. But buried in that bullish outlook is a striking number: 81% of AGA executives identified prediction markets offering sports event contracts as a “very significant” risk to the regulated gaming industry.

That figure reflects the view of the members who stayed — primarily casino operators and land-based gaming companies such as Caesars, MGM Resorts, and Penn Entertainment, none of which have moved toward prediction markets. Their concern is real. Kalshi alone raised $1 billion at a $22 billion valuation in May 2026, and annualized trading volume on its platform has more than tripled over the past six months to $178 billion. These are not niche numbers.

For sports bettors tracking where the state-by-state guide to legal wagering is headed, the May 20 hearing is worth watching closely. Senator Blackburn has indicated she intends to issue a recommendation framework before the August recess. Several legislative vehicles are already moving through Congress, including the Event Contract Enforcement Act and the Prediction Markets are Gambling Act. The AGA will be pressing its case hard. It will just be doing so without the four operators who once made it the most powerful lobbying force in American gambling.