IGA chair warns DraftKings is next tribal target after Kalshi
Indian Gaming Association conference chair Victor Rocha warned that DraftKings will be the next target of tribal lawsuits after Kalshi loses its legal fights. Rocha said DraftKings 'has to come down like a piñata, and we'll be waiting with baseball bats.' The threat centers on sports event contracts, which tribal gaming interests view as encroaching on their exclusive compacts. DraftKings' tribal partnerships are at risk as the company expands into prediction markets.
DraftKings built its sportsbook expansion on tribal partnerships and revenue-sharing compacts. Those same tribes now threaten to weaponize those relationships against the operator's prediction-market push. Rocha's warning is explicit: tribes will sue once Kalshi's federal preemption defense collapses.
A tribal lawsuit would force DraftKings to geofence reservations, fragment liquidity, and absorb legal spend before the product can scale. The piñata comment signals organized resistance, not one-off rhetoric. Other platforms with tribal casino partnerships face the same cross-pressure as they enter event contracts.
Rocha's threat joins a Ninth Circuit rejection of Kalshi's preemption theory in Nevada, with tribal warnings now targeting DraftKings and Robinhood sharing identical exposure to the same reasoning.