FanDuel Defends Its VIP Program Against Congressional Pressure

FanDuel has pushed back against congressional scrutiny of how it treats its highest-spending customers. Three federal lawmakers sent the operator a list of questions this month. The trigger was a personalized video from a Major League Baseball star, sent to a bettor who is currently suing the company. The FanDuel VIP program sits at the center of that inquiry, and the sportsbook is defending it rather than backing away from it. Its answer is that the FanDuel VIP program applies the same player protection rules that cover every other account.

The Video That Triggered the Questions

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Rep. Paul Tonko and Rep. Valerie Foushee wrote to three parties at once. Their letters went to FanDuel, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association, and they asked about athletes appearing in promotions aimed at high-value bettors. The message at the heart of it came from Bryce Harper, the Philadelphia Phillies star and two-time National League MVP. Harper recorded a personal video for Terry Thompson, a customer enrolled in the operator’s VIP tier.

Thompson is not a routine account holder. He has an active lawsuit against FanDuel and other sportsbook operators, alleging they pushed customers toward harmful betting behavior. A celebrity thank-you landing in the inbox of someone already suing the company was always going to attract attention on Capitol Hill.

Harper later said he had no idea the message was connected to a gambling promotion. He added that he would have turned it down had anyone explained the circumstances. That leaves FanDuel defending a promotional moment its own celebrity participant has publicly distanced himself from.

How the FanDuel VIP Program Screens Members

FanDuel told lawmakers that customers cannot simply sign up for the VIP program. The company reviews account activity first and confirms that a potential member is active and in good standing before extending an invitation. Screening happens before the invitation goes out, not after someone starts spending heavily.

Once inside, members of the FanDuel VIP program remain subject to every responsible gaming requirement that applies to standard accounts. FanDuel argues the VIP program adds oversight rather than removing it. Members get access to a dedicated account manager, compliance teams and an escalation path when something looks wrong.

One detail matters more than the rest. FanDuel stated that VIP account managers earn a salary and receive nothing tied to how much their customers wager or lose. That addresses the criticism most often aimed at VIP schemes across the industry. Commission-based incentives have long encouraged staff to keep big losers playing.

Training, Monitoring and Permanent Exclusion

Employees working on the FanDuel VIP program complete responsible gaming training beyond the company standard. Those sessions continue quarterly, with updates whenever new tools or procedures arrive. FanDuel presented this as ongoing rather than a single onboarding module.

The operator also pointed to behavioral monitoring systems that scan customer activity for signs of gambling harm. Flagged accounts can trigger educational outreach, mandatory limits, temporary suspension or permanent exclusion. The company said its teams watch shifts in deposits, withdrawals, wager sizes and customer communications across its platforms.

FanDuel drew a hard line on disclosure. Any customer who reports a gambling problem or an addiction loses access to every FanDuel product permanently. The company said it does not try to bring those customers back. Standard controls also remain available inside the FanDuel VIP program, including deposit limits, wager limits, time restrictions, activity statements and self-exclusion.

The Spending Behind the Defense

FanDuel backed its position with numbers. Parent company Flutter Entertainment spent $158 million on responsible gaming initiatives over the past year. The operator launched its “Play with a Plan” campaign in January 2026. That effort encourages customers to review their own habits and use the controls already built into the product.

The company is also a founding member of the Responsible Online Gaming Association. ROGA members have committed more than $20 million toward shared industry projects. Those include a cross-operator self-exclusion database and a certification program that requires third-party audits.

FanDuel currently holds sportsbook licenses in 26 US jurisdictions. FanDuel framed its VIP program as enhanced service for a small group of customers. That service sits inside the regulatory requirements of each of those markets. “Customer protection informs decisions we make,” the operator wrote, describing a program built to work within its responsible gaming framework rather than around it.

What the Response Does Not Address

FanDuel gave lawmakers a detailed picture of policy, training and spending. But the reply says little about the specific chain of events that prompted the letters in the first place. Nobody has explained how a video from an active MLB player reached a customer in open litigation. Nobody has said who signed it off either.

That gap keeps the story alive. Harper’s own account contradicts the idea that everyone involved understood the promotion. Thompson’s lawsuit also continues regardless of what FanDuel writes to Congress. Lawmakers now have a document they can hold the company to, which raises the stakes on any future incident.

The wider question has not gone away either. Federal and state officials keep circling VIP schemes because those programs concentrate revenue in a small number of accounts. FanDuel has argued its own VIP program works safely, but the next test will come from evidence rather than correspondence.