Sports Betting Industry Spends $41 Million to Influence Elections

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Sports Betting Industry Spends $41 Million to Influence Elections

With a well-funded super PAC, the betting platforms DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics are aiming to shape future regulation of their rapidly growing industry.

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FanDuel is joining DraftKings and Fanatics in funding a new group, Win for America, that is expected to play a role in state legislative races.

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Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images

By

Theodore Schleifer

and

Kenneth P. Vogel

Reporting from Washington

April 15, 2026,

4:10 p.m. ET

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Some of the country’s biggest sports betting platforms are pooling tens of millions of dollars into a new super PAC that is expected to focus primarily on state legislative races, the latest example of an industry-funded special interest seeking to play a big role in the midterm elections.

DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics have put $41 million into a new group, Win for America, according to a Wednesday filing with the Federal Election Commission. The striking total signals that the group is likely to be one of the biggest spenders in the 2026 election cycle.

Win for America operates two other outside groups: American Future, which will engage in Democratic primary races, and American Conservative Fund, which will focus on Republican ones.

Sports betting has been largely

regulated by state governments

since the Supreme Court in 2018 overturned a national ban on such wagers (except in Nevada casinos and a few venues in other states).

The industry has

spent heavily on lobbying state legislatures

to legalize sports betting and to limit taxation and some regulation, leading to the fastest expansion of legalized gambling in American history. More than 35 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized some form of sports betting.

New filings show that the three Win for America groups are sending their money to affiliate groups that appear to be spending on state legislative races in Georgia and Texas — two of the largest states that have not approved sports betting.

In Pennsylvania — another state where the Win for America operation is directing money — lawmakers have considered raising taxes on sports betting.

The group’s state-focused approach is different from the paths taken by other industry-funded super PACs this cycle, such as those backed by the artificial intelligence and crypto industries. Those super PACs are largely engaging in federal races as they try to shape the membership of the next Congress, and are some of the cycle’s biggest spenders.

An exception to that is the social media giant Meta, which has

pumped $65 million

into its own A.I.-focused super PACs centered on state lawmakers.

Theodore Schleifer is a Times reporter covering billionaires and their impact on the world.

Kenneth P. Vogel is based in Washington and investigates the intersection of money, politics and influence.

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