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- By Native News Online Staff
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The Indian Gaming Association hosted a congressional briefing final Wednesday within the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs assembly room on Capitol Hill, warning lawmakers of what tribal leaders described as probably the most important risk to Indian gaming since passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
Opening the briefing, Chairman Dave Z. Bean, delivered pointed remarks outlining what he referred to as the urgency of the second.
“Sports event contracts being offered through prediction markets are the biggest threat to Indian gaming since IGRA was introduced to restrict Indian Gaming,” Bean mentioned. “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.”
The session introduced collectively the IGA/NCAI Task Force, leaders from the National Congress of American Indians, together with President Mark Macarro, tribal management, state and nationwide gaming associations and shopper safety consultants. Speakers centered on the speedy development of sports activities occasion contracts supplied underneath oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Tribal leaders informed members of Congress that the contracts are being listed on futures and derivatives markets initially designed to assist farmers handle crop threat and had been by no means meant to perform as nationwide sportsbooks.
“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,” Bean mentioned.
Panelists contrasted the contracts with tribal and state-regulated sportsbooks, citing what they described as main gaps in oversight and shopper safety. They mentioned the platforms lack geofencing know-how, permitting them to bypass a tribe’s authority to find out who operates on its lands. They additionally cited an absence of significant shopper protections, no uniform age-verification necessities and no income sharing with states or tribes.
Tribal leaders pointed to controversy following the latest Super Bowl, when the CFTC acquired complaints over disputed wagers and final result determinations. They mentioned the incidents spotlight a scarcity of regulatory readability and safeguards which are commonplace in tribal gaming operations.
A tribal leaders panel moderated by IGA Executive Director Jason Giles featured Chief Kirk Francis of the Penobscot Nation and Councilwoman Hermenia Frias of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. The leaders mentioned gaming income funds important providers, together with well being care, housing, schooling and public security.
“Prediction markets provide no benefit to tribal communities,” Bean mentioned. “They extract value without consent, without compacting, and without accountability.”
A gaming affiliation panel included Bean, Phil Brodeen of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, Rebecca George of the Washington Indian Gaming Association and Alex Costello of the American Gaming Association. Speakers mentioned the tribal and business gaming sectors are aligned in opposition.
“The entire gaming industry, commercial and tribal, is united,” Bean mentioned. “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.”
Tribal leaders additionally raised issues concerning the CFTC’s place that sports activities occasion contracts usually are not unlawful underneath the Commodity Exchange Act. Recent feedback by CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam, whose time period lately ended, and ongoing litigation surrounding prediction markets have additional heightened tensions between regulators and tribal governments.
Bean mentioned administrative motion can not change congressional authority.
“Congress established the framework for gaming in this country. If federal regulators reinterpret commodities law to authorize nationwide sports betting, that undermines Congress, undermines States and Tribes, and undermines the rule of law,” he mentioned.
IGA and its companions are urging senators to incorporate clarifying language in pending cryptocurrency market laws affirming that the Commodity Exchange Act doesn’t authorize sports activities wagering by way of derivatives markets.
As a part of the advocacy effort, lawmakers had been requested to signal a bipartisan letter to the CFTC calling for stronger oversight of prediction markets.
Bean closed the briefing with a warning.
“Tribal gaming is the most regulated form of gaming in the United States. We built this industry responsibly under IGRA. We negotiated compacts. We follow strict regulatory standards. We share revenue. What we are seeing now is an attempt to bypass all of that. Indian Country will not allow illegal gambling to erode decades of hard work and sovereignty.”
The Indian Gaming Association mentioned it would proceed working with tribal governments, gaming associations and members of Congress to make sure federal legislation is enforced and tribal rights are protected.
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