Major League Baseball named Polymarket its official prediction-market partner March 19. Negative reactions were swift – and unusually bipartisan.
Polymarket is a crypto-based platform that allows users to bet on the outcomes of sporting events, elections, and other real-world events. The multiyear deal, which could be worth up to $300 million, grants Polymarket exclusive rights to use MLB team logos and other assets on its platform.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, was among the first to speak out against the move – but she was quickly joined by conservative commentators.
"This is sad," she wrote on X. "I know as a politician these companies are going to spend a billion dollars against me for saying it, but pervasive gambling is not good for society. It turns life into a casino, traps people in addiction and debt, surges domestic violence, and fosters manipulation."
Daily Wire host Michael Knowles responded on X, quipping, "This is sad: I agree with @AOC." He then polled his followers on whether to invite Ocasio-Cortez on his show and subsequently extended her the invitation.
Legal scholar Robert George, a Princeton University professor known for his Catholic natural law philosophy and social conservative advocacy, also weighed in. "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is wrong about most social issues, but she's right about this one,” George wrote. “I give her a lot of credit for speaking out. Very, very few politicians — Republican or Democrat — are willing to do so."
The backlash extended to Capitol Hill. On March 23, Sens. Adam Schiff, D-CA, and John Curtis, R-UT, introduced the "Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act," a bill that would ban Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated platforms from offering sports-related contracts. Schiff said the CFTC is inappropriately "greenlighting these markets" instead of enforcing the law, and called for Congress to "eliminate this backdoor which violates state consumer protections."
The bill came days after MLB joined the NHL, MLS, and UFC as U.S. sports leagues with official prediction-market partnerships.