Maryland Regulators Taking Heat For Sending Letter Written By AGA

Everyone who’s ever taken a shortcut on a high school essay knows that the first rule of getting away with light plagiarism is to make enough cosmetic changes to the wording to cover up that light plagiarism.

According to reporting this week from Spotlight on Maryland, the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency (MLGCA) neglected to do that bare minimum of cosmetic cover-up work. As a result, it is being painted by prediction market supporters as a puppet of the American Gaming Association (AGA).

In April 2025, the MLGCA was among numerous state regulatory agencies that sent a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), urging the federal regulator of prediction markets to ban sports event contracts on sites like Kalshi and Polymarket. The AGA, a major lobbying group representing casinos, had previously sent state regulators a sample letter, and Spotlight on Maryland now reports that the MGLCA’s letter was identical to the AGA’s sample, aside from the insertion of some state-specific wording.

That the AGA and most state regulators are on the same page about sports betting being a state-regulated (and state-taxed) activity, and thus sharing opposition to sports wagering via prediction markets, is not exactly a secret. So the AGA suggesting wording for states to use is hardly a surprise.

But those who endorse prediction markets’ freedom to offer sports markets are seizing upon this as an opportunity to point fingers at Maryland and the AGA.

“This is a great example of the fox guarding the henhouse. If you've got casino lobbyists writing the official talking points and letters of Maryland state gaming officials, well, they clearly have no independence,” Coalition for Prediction Markets President and CEO Sean Patrick Maloney told Spotlight on Maryland. “You’ve got a smoking gun. They’re clearly taking their marching orders from the casino lobbyists. That’s not what the citizens of Maryland deserve. They deserve people doing the public’s work, not running errands for casino lobbyists.”

AGA, AGs rowing in same direction

Two months ago, on May 1, Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown joined 40 other state attorneys general in asking the CFTC to leave sports betting regulation to the states.

Attorneys general team up frequently and have done so previously with guidance from the casino industry via groups like the AGA, such as last August when 50 AGs called on the U.S. Department of Justice to crack down on offshore gambling sites.

The only difference here is the MLGCA sending a letter that it didn’t bother to put into its own words — opening the door for criticism. But a spokesperson for the MLGCA insisted to Spotlight on Maryland that the agency acts “independently,” while admitting that the regulator used the draft provided by the AGA.