{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2026/5/video-blackburn-leads-hearing-on-protecting-sports-integrity-in-america", "VIDEO: Blackburn Leads Hearing on Protecting Sports Integrity in America", "2026-05-20", "2026", "2026-05", "Republican", "Senate", "TN", "Marsha Blackburn", "B001243", "www.blackburn.senate.gov", "blackburn", "https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/news/cc8c80c1-d564-4bbb-93a4-f1d772346ae0", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Technology, and Data Privacy, led a hearing examining the rapid expansion of sports betting in the United States, the industry\u2019s growing impact on the integrity of games, and the need to protect vulnerable young people from gambling addiction. Click here to watch the full hearing.\n\n\u201cFrom Saturdays in Neyland Stadium to nights at Bridgestone Arena watching the Predators, Tennesseans\u2014and Americans broadly\u2014love sports. Sports bring together families, they unite people, and they teach young Americans about teamwork, discipline, sacrifice, and fair play.\u201d\n\n\u201cAmerican sports are not just this nation\u2019s past time\u2014they are a global symbol of competition watched by hundreds of millions of people around the world.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen Americans watch their favorite sports team, they don\u2019t want to worry about the game being rigged. They don\u2019t want to worry that their favorite player missed a free-throw to make an extra buck on the side.\u201d\n\n\u201cUnfortunately, though, there have recently been high profile examples of match-fixing in the NBA and MLB, challenging Americans\u2019 trust in the integrity of sport.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis has all been inflamed by the rapid explosion of legal sports betting across the United States. What was once limited to a handful of locations is now available in almost every corner of the country\u2014often right on a cellphone.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe introduction of sports event contracts on prediction markets has exposed more people to sportsbetting. While prediction markets represent financial innovation across sectors, there are real concerns that they function much like traditional sports betting without the enforcement of state regulators and attorneys general.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhile sports betting is often a source of entertainment for responsible adults, it is not without its risks. Like I mentioned, we have seen scandals involving professional athletes, referees, and suspicious bettingactivity. College athletes are reporting harassment and threats from angry bettors. And Americans\u2014including young people\u2014are being inundated with advertisements on social media.\u201d\n\n\u201cOur young men are in crisis\u2014with over a third of boys between the ages of 11 and 17 admitting to gambling in the last year. Sixty percent of those who have seen gambling content online said they had it surfaced through social media algorithms. This isn\u2019t safe, and it needs to stop.\u201d", 1, "2026-05-21T06:28:16Z", "2026-05-21T06:29:43Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2026/5/video-blackburn-leads-hearing-on-protecting-sports-integrity-in-america"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0076230391860008, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}