Casino trade groups ask Congress to ban sports event contracts
Three major casino trade groups — the American Gaming Association (AGA), the Indian Gaming Association (IGA), and the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM) — are lobbying Congress to pass legislation banning sports event contracts regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The groups criticized the products as offering nationwide sports betting through federally regulated financial instruments, arguing they circumvent state-licensed sports betting frameworks. The lobbying centers on the bipartisan Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act, which would prohibit the CFTC from approving event contracts tied to sports. The move escalates the conflict between traditional gaming operators and prediction market platforms such as Kalshi that offer CFTC-regulated sports contracts.
Kalshi and Polymarket now face a simultaneous federal legislative ban from Congress on top of existing state enforcement actions. A statutory prohibition would override their CFTC registration advantage and force both platforms to abandon sports contracts nationwide regardless of exchange licensing status.
Lobbying by the AGA, the Indian Gaming Association, and the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers joins the gaming coalition's Senate push to ban sports prediction markets in the crypto bill, extending the casino industry's two-front attack on CFTC-regulated sports contracts through both standalone legislation and must-pass crypto legislation.