Members of Congress Demand FanDuel Eliminate VIP Programs for Bettors

Three members of Congress sent letters Monday to FanDuel, Major League Baseball, and the MLB Players Association demanding an end to sportsbook VIP loyalty programs after a personalized video from Phillies star Bryce Harper was used to keep a gambling addict betting. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Reps. Paul Tonko (D-NY) and Valerie Foushee (D-NC) called the situation “deeply disturbing” in letters addressed to FanDuel CEO Christian Genetski, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, and MLBPA interim executive director Bruce Meyer.

The controversy traces back to a Philadelphia Inquirer report in July detailing how a FanDuel VIP host arranged a personalized greeting from Harper for Terry Thompson, a Montgomery County, Pennsylvania man who had wagered roughly $18.5 million with the operator since 2020 and ultimately lost about $1.5 million. Harper recorded the 21-second clip through Cameo in November 2024, addressing Thompson by name and referencing his young son, without knowing FanDuel intended to use it as a reward tied to his betting activity.

Harper Says He Was Kept in the Dark

Harper addressed the fallout on Instagram in July, saying he joined Cameo to engage with fans through paid personal videos and had no idea the request — submitted by someone identifying only as “Bryttanni” — would be repurposed for a gambling promotion. “FanDuel then put its own logo on the video and used it as a gambling promotion,” Harper wrote, adding that he never consented to the use and would not have recorded the message had he known the full context. FanDuel has maintained that its staff are trained to identify and flag signs of problem gambling and that the company continues to strengthen its consumer-protection practices.

Thompson’s situation extends beyond FanDuel. A lawsuit filed in March by the nonprofit Public Health Advocacy Institute in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court names both FanDuel and DraftKings, alleging the operators used targeted data and loyalty perks to coerce Thompson into escalating his betting activity while he was struggling with addiction. According to the suit, Thompson had considered suicide rather than tell his family the full scope of what he had lost.

Lawmakers Target the League-Sportsbook Relationship

The letters go beyond FanDuel’s VIP program specifically. In their message to MLB and the MLBPA, the lawmakers wrote that they want “an end to the MLB and MLBPA policies that enabled this type of predatory promotion,” arguing that the current collective bargaining agreement — which allows players to do promotional work for sportsbooks as long as they don’t explicitly encourage betting on games — represents a “systemic failure” rooted in how deeply intertwined leagues, teams, and operators have become. That CBA is set to expire in December, and the MLBPA has separately signaled it wants even more latitude for players to partner with betting companies going forward.

The letter to FanDuel poses eight questions and the letter to MLB and the union poses five, with both giving recipients until August 24 to respond. Among the asks: whether MLB and the MLBPA will commit to barring players from appearing in personalized VIP marketing campaigns, and whether FanDuel will commit to winding down VIP programs altogether, particularly for customers showing signs of a gambling problem.

What Comes Next

With the response deadline landing in the middle of CBA negotiations, the pressure adds a new wrinkle to talks between the league and its players over how far sportsbook partnerships should extend. For bettors weighing where to place their own action, checking the latest FanDuel review or comparing terms through a FanDuel promo code offer is a reasonable way to understand how an operator structures its promotions before signing up. Congress has not proposed legislation tied to this specific incident yet, but the letters mark one of the more pointed pushes from federal lawmakers into how sportsbooks court their highest-volume customers.