The prediction markets industry just got its own lobbying arm, and it’s not being shy about picking a fight.
Americans for Fair Markets, a new advocacy organization backed by Kalshi, launched on May 22 with a clear mission: push back against the gambling industry’s efforts to block federally regulated prediction markets at the state level. The group has enlisted Taylor Budowich, a former Deputy White House Chief of Staff under Donald Trump, as a strategic advisor, signaling that this won’t be a quiet, white-paper-only kind of operation.
The players and the playbook
Kalshi, the first CFTC-regulated prediction market exchange, reported a 32x increase in annualized trading volume over the past year. The broader sector now sits at roughly $500 billion in value, with millions of users participating monthly in the US alone.
The American Gaming Association, led by former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, has been working to convince state legislators that prediction markets are essentially unregulated gambling wearing a suit. AFM’s position is that this narrative is misleading, and that the gaming lobby’s real concern is competition, not consumer safety.
