Gary Gensler files amicus brief backing Ohio against Kalshi in sports prediction market case
Former SEC and CFTC chair Gary Gensler filed an amicus brief on June 11 with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals backing Ohio in its legal fight against prediction market platform Kalshi. The brief, also signed by thirty Native American tribes and eleven tribal associations, argues that sports betting contracts are not swaps under commodities law and that the Dodd-Act does not grant the CFTC authority over sports betting. Gensler called Kalshi's position 'flat wrong' and contended that prediction markets cannot override state gambling regulations, placing federal oversight of event contracts under the Commodity Exchange Act as not precluding states from enforcing their own gaming laws.
The brief arms Ohio and other states with a former dual-agency chair's authority to challenge CFTC jurisdictional claims, directly undermining Kalshi's federal preemption defense in its fights with Minnesota, Rhode Island, and New Mexico.
Gensler joins a widening federal-state collision over prediction markets that already has the CFTC suing Minnesota and Rhode Island to block state enforcement actions while Kalshi fights parallel state-court gambling claims in New Mexico.