Indian Gaming Association leaders rebuke CFTC over proposed guidelines legalizing prediction markets – CDC Gaming

The chairman of the Indian Gaming Association stated the federal company overseeing prediction market operators is spitting within the face of tribes and states with its proposed guidelines legitimizing sports activities wagers nationwide.

Chairman David Bean spoke out on IGA’s New Normal webinar following the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s releasing a doc backed by the White House that may legalize sports activities bets supplied nationwide by prediction markets underneath CFTC regulation quite than states and tribal commissions. States and tribes, which argue the prediction market operators are taking away income from casinos and reducing into tax income, are preventing them in court docket.

“I just think it’s the big middle finger to tribes and states,” Bean stated. “It’s a continuation of CFTC Chairman (Michael) Selig since he took office. He said he was going to leave it up to the courts, but ever since he got in, he’s definitely working in concert with prediction market operators. I’m disappointed but not surprised. We still have work to do. We’re still pushing that snowball uphill.”

IGA Executive Director Jason Giles stated it’s not a shock that the CFTC has come out with guidelines attempting to legitimize prediction markets.

“It’s a jam job and it’s corrupt,” Giles stated. “They blew past three or four different requirements with (Office of Management and Budget) complicity. They needed other agencies’ complicitness in order to jam this rule through in an extremely short timeline with more than 1,500 comments. You’re telling me that in a matter of two to three weeks they looked over 1,500 comments and made any substantive changes to the rule they already had in their back pocket written by the prediction markets.”

Giles stated the CFTC needed to get the proposed rule via the Office of Internal Regulatory Authority for its financial influence. If it’s declared a serious rule, that may require extra session and justification for the rule.

“Clearly, this is a major rule,” Giles stated. “This is affecting billions of dollars. This whole thing tells you they don’t care about being sued. They’re going to violate at least three or four provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act, but they don’t care; they’re already suing up to eight states, plus all the other lawsuits prediction markets are engaged in. It shows you we can’t sit around and take offense. These guys are corrupt to the core, and this kind of rule making is what you get when you have government corruption.”

Giles referred to the scenario as “Stalineque. What the dear leader wants, the dear leader gets and you change the rules of the game with very little notice or input, you just to make the dear leader happy,” Giles stated. “That’s what Selig is there for. He knows his role. At some point, we have to decide what type of country we want to live in.”

IGA Conference Chair Victor Rocha stated the position of the CFTC is there to assist farmers place hedges and never oversee sports activities betting. He accused Selig of utilizing farmers as props when he visits with them. “They are not even pretending anymore,” Rocha stated. “The irony is if you go to Polymarket or Kalshi, they have the Democrats taking over Congress.”

Bean has traveled throughout the nation, speaking with tribal leaders about the specter of prediction markets. Last week, he participated within the 2026 Tribal Leaders Summit hosted by the University of Arizona Native American Advancement & Tribal Engagement program in Tucson. He spoke to tribal leaders, elected officers, regulators, educators, college students, and neighborhood advocates from throughout Indian Country.

“Tribal gaming is not simply an industry. It is an exercise of sovereignty,” Bean advised the group. “For nearly four decades, tribal nations have built one of the most highly regulated and successful governmental gaming systems in the world. Any effort that seeks to bypass or undermine that framework is a challenge not only to tribal gaming, but to tribal sovereignty itself.”

Bean stated that defending tribal sovereignty requires ongoing engagement from all tribal nations, no matter whether or not they function gaming amenities. “This issue extends beyond gaming. It’s about defending the authority of tribes to govern their own affairs and ensuring that federal agencies respect the frameworks that Congress and tribal nations have worked together to establish. When one tribe’s sovereignty is challenged, all tribes should take notice.”

During the webinar, Bean stated that some tribal leaders are beginning to grasp that prediction markets are what he known as “illegal online sports betting.” He stated opponents of prediction markets now have to concentrate on the Clarity Act, the proposed cryptocurrency laws in Congress that serves as a backdoor to prediction market legalization.

“Our focus and attention are going to shift to the Senate and this Clarity Act bill,” Bean stated. “We’re going to let the senators know we don’t have a problem with cryptocurrency. The only problem we have is with the prediction markets utilizing the sports betting and casino gaming space.”

Rocha stated what’s occurring in Washington, D.C., “is a partisan hack” that’s not “good for America and definitely not for tribes and states. This is an erosion of sovereignty – both tribal and state. Now, we can go to Utah and gamble on the steps of the temple on Sunday, while we’re listening to the service, and there’s not a thing they can do about it.”

Giles stated nobody has grasped the financial influence on the state degree. The subject is establishing a constitutional showdown that might be determined by the Supreme Court.

“Unless the Supreme Court does a complete 180, everything they said (in the 2018 PASPA decision paving the way for nationwide sports betting regulated by states) about gambling is that it’s within the remunerated rights left to the states when they overturned the ban on federal sports betting,” Giles stated. “The CFTC doesn’t have an argument. Just throw their rules in the pile of nonsense.”

Bean raised considerations about how prediction markets ought to must guardrails in place to guard in opposition to drawback and underage playing. The excellent news is that opponents of prediction markets proceed to come back collectively to rally in opposition to them.

“We’re seeing so many organizations get involved because of what’s at stake,” Bean stated. “Tribal facilities and commercial gaming facilities don’t just build up their respective economies, they build up the economies in their communities and neighboring ones. Tribes are some of the largest employers in their respective regions. They generate tax revenue and provide jobs. We have the law on our side. The courts have been ruling in our favor and once you started seeing the tribes get involved, you started seeing the court decisions begin to change and rule against the Polymarkets, Kalshis, and CFTC. We still have a long way to go. We can’t rest on these single victories. As we move forward, these small victories will begin to add up.”