Lawmakers remain unlikely to pass federal sports betting or prediction market legislation before the midterms, while tribes, former officials and consumer advocates challenge the CFTC's approach to sports event contracts.
Congress has made little progress on bills to tighten federal oversight of sports gambling and prediction markets before the midterm elections, even as criticism broadens over both industries and over the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's proposed approach to event contracts. The SAFE Bet Act has not advanced in the Senate, and Sen. Adam Schiff's bill to bar prediction markets from offering sports event contracts also remains pending. At the same time, lawmakers, Native American tribes, casinos, consumer advocates and former officials are pushing back on the CFTC's proposal to restrict some event contracts tied to activities listed in law, including crime, terrorism, assassination, war and "gaming," while generally allowing many sports-related contracts on platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket to continue. Critics including Sen. Tim Kaine, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, former Sen. Christopher Dodd and former CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad say prediction markets and sportsbooks raise risks around addiction, corruption, insider-information trading and regulatory overreach, while states and tribes argue sports prediction markets amount to gambling that should remain under local control.