Thomson Reuters publishes practical-law guide to federal regulation of event contracts
Thomson Reuters Practical Law published a guide to federal regulation of event contracts in the US. The guide covers event contracts traded on CFTC-registered designated contract markets and explains the tension between the CFTC's assertion of exclusive jurisdiction and other regulatory frameworks. The publication comes as the CFTC has released a notice of proposed rulemaking to establish a structured framework for evaluating whether event contracts involve excluded commodities. A social media post from legal account WALLACHLegal noted that a CFTC document on event contracts is titled 'Review of event contracts based upon certain excluded commodities,' confirming the agency's historical framing.
Kalshi and Polymarket must now navigate four overlapping CFTC frameworks plus state litigation while Thomson Reuters codifies the jurisdictional claims for their legal teams. The guide gives outside counsel a single reference for the preemption fights already underway in Rhode Island, Minnesota, and Ohio.
The Practical Law guide arrives alongside CFTC Chair Selig's Rule 40.11 rewrite, a 267-page proposed framework, and the agency's federal preemption suits against Rhode Island and Minnesota, making this the busiest rulemaking and litigation stretch yet for prediction market operators.