Utah AG Derek Brown’s campaign received at least $80,000 from gambling interests

Utah Attorney General Derek Brown’s campaign received at least $80,000 from gambling and betting interests in 2025 and 2026, according to campaign-finance disclosures reviewed by KSL and The Salt Lake Tribune. The reports were published on October 29, the day after Brown’s office filed criminal charges against prediction-market operator Kalshi and its co-founders.

The contributions do not, by themselves, show that any donor influenced a charging decision. Brown’s campaign says they did not. The scrutiny comes from who paid, and when. Several donors have a commercial stake in gambling or prediction markets while Brown is pursuing one of the sharpest state cases against a platform registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Where the $80,000 came from

The largest contribution was $50,000 from Las Vegas Sands in April 2026, after Brown had publicly said he intended to crack down on online gambling. Las Vegas Sands has spent years opposing the expansion of online gambling.

The rest came from fantasy, betting and sweepstakes businesses, or from people who work at them.

Sideprize LLC, the company behind PrizePicks, made two contributions of $2,500 in 2025. DK Crown, a DraftKings subsidiary, contributed $5,000 in April 2025. Stacie Stern, a senior vice president at Underdog, personally contributed $10,000 in January. KSL reported that payment as hers, not as a corporate check from Underdog.

Two sweepstakes-casino operators added $10,000 in 2026. The Tribune reported that ARB Gaming LLC gave $5,000 in January and VGW LuckyLand Inc. gave $5,000 in September.

Campaign adviser Matt Lusty told KSL and the Tribune that donations do not influence the attorney general’s decisions, and that Brown remains focused on companies and individuals he believes harm Utah residents.

Neither outlet cited evidence that a contribution produced a specific charging decision. The state’s disclosure index for the Brown campaign is public, but the dollar figures above are the ones the two newsrooms reported from the filings.

The Kalshi case is now criminal

On Wednesday, October 28, Utah filed a criminal information against KalshiEx. KSL reported that it contains 14 counts: one second-degree felony for a pattern of unlawful activity, 12 third-degree felonies for online gambling promotion, and one class A misdemeanor for general gambling promotion. Front Office Sports reported that the state filed three informations that day, one each against Kalshi and co-founders Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, and that each information contains 14 counts.

Front Office Sports also reported that the investigation included an undercover agent who opened a Kalshi account and placed 12 sports bets, staking $114.87 and losing $25.10.

Kalshi called the prosecution political overreach and said it would challenge the charges in court. The company pointed to a May federal ruling that stopped Arizona from prosecuting it over earlier misdemeanor charges.

The criminal case sits on an earlier fight about jurisdiction. Kalshi sued Utah in February, arguing that federal commodities law stopped the state from applying its gambling statutes. In August, U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby granted summary judgment to Utah. Kalshi appealed, and on September 8 the Tenth Circuit refused to pause enforcement while that appeal continues.

KSL also reported a separate civil complaint, filed in Utah’s 3rd District Court, asking a court to stop Kalshi from offering what the state calls illegal sports betting to Utah residents.

KSL reported that the CFTC sued Utah on Monday, October 26, arguing that the state has no authority to ban derivatives markets governed by federal law. After the criminal filings, a CFTC spokesperson told Front Office Sports that the charges were intimidation-style tactics and that the agency would defend its jurisdiction.

Other prediction apps have already narrowed Utah access

The enforcement has already changed what some other platforms offer in the state. That change is not evidence about the campaign donations.

DraftKings said that on Thursday, October 30, sports, novelty, political and certain other event contracts were no longer available on DraftKings Predictions to customers physically in Utah. Contracts tied to stocks, commodities and cryptocurrency remained available, and open positions were left to settle.

FanDuel said that from 10 a.m. Eastern on Friday, October 31, sports, politics and novelty contracts would no longer be available in Utah on FanDuel Predicts. Contracts on economic benchmarks and financial indicators would remain, and open positions would settle.

For people in Utah, a federal registration has not by itself removed state-law risk. Utah is treating at least some of this activity as gambling. The CFTC is asking the federal courts to stop that enforcement.