Written by Eric Hamelback – CEO, National HBPA
Horse racing has always been built on a simple principle: the people who invest their time, money, and livelihoods into the sport deserve to share in its success. Owners, trainers, and jockeys take on real financial and personal risk to bring races to life, and for generations, the wagering system has been structured to ensure they are fairly compensated.
That balance is now being challenged.
I represent horsemen across the country, and I can tell you, this isn’t theoretical. These are real people who wake up before dawn, care for these horses every day, and make the sport possible. When the integrity of the wagering system is compromised, it directly impacts their ability to sustain their businesses and continue participating in racing.
Wagering has never been treated as just another form of entertainment. States regulate it carefully because it generates public revenue, ensures consumer protections, and supports entire industries. In horse racing, that system has been refined over decades. When a wager is placed through approved pari-mutuel channels, it supports racetracks, funds purses, and helps sustain jobs and local economies.
What we’re seeing now with so-called “prediction market” platforms is a clear attempt to sidestep that system.
These platforms claim to operate as financial exchanges under federal oversight, but many of their offerings look and function a lot like traditional wagering. The difference is they aren’t playing by the same rules. They bypass state laws, avoid taxes, and most importantly they don’t compensate the people who actually put on the race.
This is the fundamental problem.
Congress addressed this exact issue decades ago through the Interstate Horseracing Act (IHA). The law is straightforward: if you’re going to take wagers on horse racing, you need consent from the racetracks and the horsemen. That ensures the people generating the product have a say and receive their fair share.
When wagering happens outside that framework, horsemen are cut out entirely. Others profit from the races without sharing in the costs, the risks, or the responsibilities.
We’ve already seen this play out. Reports indicate that Polymarket alone handled around $1.2 million in wagers tied to the 2025 Kentucky Derby. Under the existing system, that a percentage of that money would have flowed back into the industry supporting purses, operations, and the broader racing ecosystem.
That’s not just a loss of revenue, it’s a breakdown of the structure that keeps the sport viable.
It also puts state regulators in a difficult position. They are responsible for overseeing wagering and ensuring it’s conducted fairly, yet these platforms operate outside their authority while offering products that closely resemble regulated gambling. That creates an uneven playing field and undermines the regulatory framework that has been in place for years.
At its core, this is about fairness.
If a company is going to offer products that function like wagering, it should be held to the same standards as everyone else in the space. That means following state laws, contributing to public revenues, and respecting the rights of the people whose work makes those wagers possible.
Horse racing only works when the value it creates is shared among those who produce it. When that structure is ignored, it threatens the long-term stability of the industry.
This isn’t about resisting innovation, but it is about ensuring that new platforms don’t come in and exploit the system at the expense of the very people who make the sport possible.
Policymakers need to act to make sure federal frameworks aren’t being used to bypass state authority or undermine longstanding protections. Because if we lose that balance, we risk losing far more than just revenue – we risk the future of the sport itself.
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Eric J. Hamelback is CEO of the National Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association (HBPA) and a leading voice on equine welfare, racing integrity, and federal and state policy impacting the horse racing industry.