27 Sept 2026
Episode 60: The State Of Play In Gaming With Attorney Peter Hammon
I am not a lawyer, but I like to talk to lawyers to get smarter and so they can say stuff that I don’t want to. So with me this week on the podcast is Peter Hammon (https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-hammon-09703158/), who is Senior Of Counsel at Vela Wood (https://velawood.com/attorneys/), and is uniquely positioned in today’s world of gambling and prediction markets.
(Our conversation happened before Kalshi’s loss in the Sixth Circuit. (https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/us-appeals-court-rules-against-kalshi-says-states-can-regulate-prediction-2026-09-25/))
Fun fact: Peter wrote something at Legal Sports Report (https://www.legalsportsreport.com/9680/easy-streak-sports-betting-pool/) a decade ago when I was at the site!
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Some things rattling around in my brain this week about the gambling industry after recent news and developments:
1. Responsible and problem gambling are having a moment, for better or worse
Let’s start here…having more discussion about responsible gambling is good, no matter the circumstances. It is after all, Responsible Gaming Education Month (https://www.americangaming.org/event/responsible-gaming-education-month-2026/).
DraftKings had two pretty negative stories about how it deals with RG, one in the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/19/business/draftkings-ai.html), and the other by Pro Publica (see below).
The head of the National Council on Problem Gambling resigned (https://closingline.substack.com/p/ncpg-executive-director-resigns) after blowback from its stance on prediction markets and relationship with Kalshi.
The American Gaming Association commissioned a study (https://closingline.substack.com/p/exclusive-new-study-finds-gamblers-financially-literate) about the financial literacy and math skills of gamblers and non-gamblers.
Even if it’s painful and negative for the industry, discussion and data related to RG is badly needed, alongside more funding and better policies.
2. What will September look like for sportsbooks?
I don’t want to read too much into the data from the weekly New York reports. But, I think we’d be silly to ignore them.
Handle for the first two full weeks of football (NFL weeks 1 and 2), is up significantly from last year. This year, the first two weeks generated about $1.2 billion in handle vs. about $1.06 billion last year.
If you are looking for evidence of prediction markets taking share away from sportsbooks, you are not going to find any in the early September New York numbers.
Will that continue in other states, and into the fall? Stay tuned!
3. Here comes G2E
I will be at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas this week, and it’s undoubtedly a weird time in the gambling industry. Prediction markets are disrupting everything, after all.
Some people will be at SBC Lisbon going on at the same time, but a lot of the industry will get together and talk it out in Vegas. I will be fascinated to see what the conversations are like with everything going on right now.
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