Federal government rules in support of predictive market gambling companies

Predictive market gambling services offered by such companies as Kalshi, Polymarket and FanDuel are one step closer to being allowed to operate with less federal oversight than traditional casinos. 

On Monday, the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission released an interim rule that supports exemptions for those gambling products from certain regulatory oversight known as “swaps.” If approved, this means that bets placed on apps to predict weather, NFL games and other similar wagers would operate under different rules than bets placed at the blackjack table.

Before the rule becomes official, the federal government will take public comment on the matter. The deadline for comment is Nov. 16.

The concerns for Indian gaming is that the rule would harm operations and drastically alter the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. Codifying this reform, tribes say, would allow predictive market companies to continue operating in violation of state tribal gaming compacts. 

In September, the National Indian Gaming Association and National Congress of American Indians joined a roundtable discussion with the federal government about the proposed rule change. The lobby groups said it skirted federal law that requires tribal consultation on significant changes to federal laws. 

“The roundtable fell well short of that standard,” NCAI President Marc Macarro was quoted as saying in a statement posted by NCAI after the meeting. “Tribal Nations deserve a seat at the table when policies directly impact their sovereignty, jurisdiction, economies, and abilities to provide critical services to Tribal citizens.”

On Wednesday, NCAI moved forward a resolution urging tribes to use sovereign authority to issue violations notices to predictive market companies for operating on tribal lands illegally.