Indian gaming holds meeting on Capitol Hill to warn of dangers of prediction markets
Illegal sports prediction products are a ‘direct attack on tribal sovereignty’
The Indian Gaming Association (IGA) has held a congressional briefing in Washington DC, warning that the biggest threat to Indian gaming are sports event contracts offered via prediction markets.
IGA Chairman David Bean said: “Sports event contracts being offered through prediction markets are the biggest threat to Indian gaming since IGRA was introduced to restrict Indian Gaming. They are not innovative financial tools. They are illegal sports betting products being routed through futures exchanges to avoid gaming law. That is a direct attack on tribal sovereignty.”
“These products are for sports betting. They walk like sports betting. They pay out like sports betting. The only difference is that they are being dressed up as financial swaps to evade regulation.
“Our regulatory system – which includes partnerships with state governments and federal agencies, including the NIGC – ensures consumer protection, fraud prevention, and local decision-making to address social implications like problem and under-age gaming.”
“Sports betting that is being conducted through prediction markets violates tribal, federal, and state laws – including the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which expressly provides tribal governments with exclusive authority to regulate gaming on Indian lands in partnership with states and the NIGC. The Commodity Exchange Act and the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) offer none of these protections. 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.”
“Prediction markets provide no benefit to tribal communities,” Bean added. “They extract value without consent, without compacting, and without accountability. The entire gaming industry, commercial and tribal, is united,” Bean said. “Tribal nations are unified with States to stop this illegal betting market. We are asking Congress to step in before irreversible damage is done to state and tribal budgets and our citizens’ livelihoods.”
“CFTC has not, to date, made a determination regarding whether these contracts involve a prohibited activity.The prediction market platforms are counting on continued inaction. We demand that the CFTC do its job, and short of that, we urge Congress to act by amending the CEA to reinforce the existing prohibition against 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.”
“Congress established the framework for gaming in this country. If federal regulators reinterpret commodities law to authorise nationwide sports betting, that undermines Congress, undermines States and Tribes, and undermines the rule of law,” Bean said.
The briefing was held in the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs meeting room on Capital Hill.
Mohegan Chief Financial Officer Ari Glazer recently said: “The two Connecticut-based Native American tribes have exclusivity on all forms of gaming in Connecticut, and we are actively working with all of the Connecticut constituents and regulators and government to ensure that that is the case. Sports related event contracts are gambling, plain and simple. I think there is no debate. The state of Connecticut has sent cease and desist letters to the predictive event contract operators. The state is pursuing legal action, and of course, we’re supportive of that.”
