FanDuel Defends VIP Programme After Congress Asks Why a Struggling Bettor Got a Bryce Harper Video

FanDuel is defending its responsible gaming practices after three congressional Democrats asked why a VIP customer struggling with gambling addiction received a personalised Thanksgiving video from Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper.

According to a court filing, a Philadelphia man who lost more than $1.5 million on FanDuel, gambling away his savings and taking out several mortgages on his home, received the message at Thanksgiving 2024 while trying to stop. In the video Harper thanked him for his support and wished him and his family, by name, an "extra special" holiday.

FanDuel did not explain how a customer whose addiction was escalating came to be targeted by its VIP team. Instead it pointed to its wider programme. "At FanDuel, we take seriously our responsibility to operate in a manner that is accountable, transparent, and worthy of the trust our customers and regulators place in us," Cory Fox, senior vice president of public policy and sustainability, wrote to Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Representatives Paul Tonko of New York and Valerie Foushee of North Carolina. Fox cited parent company Flutter Entertainment's $158 million responsible gaming spend in 2025 and the tools the operator uses to identify and respond to at-risk behaviour.

The dispute is about what VIP hosts are for. Sportsbooks assign personal account managers to their highest-volume customers, and those managers are tasked with keeping them engaged. Blumenthal, Tonko and Foushee argued in their letter that hosts foster "false friendships" and hand perks to the operator's biggest losers to keep them "distracted" from what they are spending. Fox countered that VIP status brings "more oversight, not fewer safeguards".

Flutter is currently consolidating PokerStars onto its UK brands and this week renewed its FanDuel geolocation and identity contract with GeoComply.