Nine House Democrats ask FTC to investigate prediction market platforms
Nine Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate prediction market platforms, according to a letter made public Thursday, June 4. Representatives Kevin Mullin (CA-15) and Gabe Vasquez (NM-02) were among the signatories. The lawmakers did not name specific companies in available excerpts. The request brings consumer-protection scrutiny to the sector via the FTC, adding a new regulatory front beyond the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's existing oversight of event-contract platforms and the Securities and Commission's jurisdiction.
The FTC probe request pulls prediction markets into a second federal enforcement track that runs parallel to CFTC oversight. Any FTC finding of deceptive advertising would subject platforms to consent decrees and civil penalties under Section 5 of the FTC Act, separate from commodity-market enforcement.
Joins the broader pattern of federal lawmakers demanding non-CFTC scrutiny of prediction markets, alongside the earlier FTC consumer-deception probe, Warren's CFTC oversight push, and the DOJ-CFTC insider-trading crackdown.