Indian Gaming Association urges Congress to act on prediction market betting

The Indian Gaming Association (IGA) called on the U.S. Congress to take urgent action to address what it described as illegal sports betting conducted through so-called prediction markets, warning that regulatory inaction threatens tribal sovereignty and consumer protections.

In a statement, IGA Chairman David Z. Bean said sports betting offered via prediction markets violates tribal, federal, and state laws, including the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), which grants tribal governments exclusive authority to regulate gaming on Indian lands in partnership with states and the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC).

“Indian gaming is the economic bloodline for more than 240 Tribal Governments,” Bean said. “Revenue generated from gaming empowers Tribes to build critical infrastructure and provide basic services to reservation residents.”

Bean said tribes invest more than $450 million annually in gaming regulation and employ more than 6,000 regulators to oversee operations, ensuring consumer protection, fraud prevention, and safeguards against problem and underage gambling. He contrasted that framework with prediction markets regulated under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), saying they lack comparable protections.

The IGA criticised the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which oversees derivatives markets, accusing it of failing to act as prediction market platforms have offered sports-related contracts for nearly a year. Bean cited a recent CFTC statement acknowledging that the agency has not yet determined whether such contracts involve prohibited activity.

“It is no coincidence that the prediction market corporations selected the smallest and weakest financial regulatory agency to push out their self-certified, self-regulated online gambling platforms,” Bean said, adding that continued inaction by the CFTC benefits those operators.

The IGA said it is urging the CFTC to enforce existing law and, failing that, is calling on Congress to amend the Commodity Exchange Act to reinforce longstanding prohibitions on gaming conducted outside established legal and regulatory frameworks.

The association said tribal governments are united in opposing prediction market sports betting, describing it as an illegal expansion of gambling that undermines decades of work to build and protect the integrity of tribal gaming.

“Tribes have fought for too long and worked too hard to build and preserve the integrity of our industry and the resources that enable tribal governments to provide for their communities,” Bean said.