Robinhood asks Supreme Court to hold prediction markets case pending CFTC rulemaking
Robinhood has urged the Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit prediction-markets case. The filing, highlighted by gaming attorney Daniel Wallach, argues the Commodity Exchange Act gives the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over event contracts. The underlying dispute concerns whether the CEA preempts state gambling laws for event contracts, a question that has already produced conflicting circuit rulings.
Robinhood's filing adds a procedural delay tactic that could freeze the Supreme Court docket for months while the CFTC writes sports-contract rules. Kalshi, already fighting Ninth Circuit losses in Nevada and parallel state suits in Connecticut and Baltimore, any pause delays the uniform federal ruling it needs to stop geofence costs from compounding. Crypto.com faces identical pressure from its own Ninth Circuit defeat, and both platforms now watch whether the justices prefer administrative patience over immediate circuit-split resolution.
The CFTC's pending rulemaking sits at the center of every platform's strategy, because final agency rules could reshape the preemption landscape before SCOTUS speaks. Traders hold sports-linked positions whose validity depends on which regulator moves first. A prolonged wait raises the odds that another state attorney general files before federal clarity arrives. The first platform to run out of legal runway becomes the sacrificial test case for the rest.