Texas bill would ban some prediction contracts but leaves sports open
Texas state Rep. Salman Bhojani introduced House Bill 598 to regulate prediction markets at the state level. The legislation would ban contracts tied to violence, health outcomes, and disasters, and impose a 21-and-older trading requirement. It notably does not ban sports event contracts, leaving that category available for regulated platforms. The bill was introduced in the Texas House. The move comes as Texas and Georgia are among states where incoming attorneys general may take more active roles in challenging sports event contracts.
The Texas bill creates a split framework that other states may copy rather than pursue outright bans. Platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket now face building a patchwork compliance map: Texas would allow sports contracts while Utah pursues felony charges and Ohio has already halted them. The 21-and-older floor is lighter than the CFTC's swap-rule infrastructure demands, but any state-level classification still fractures the federal preemption argument platforms have leaned on.
For operators, the cost is multiplying legal playbooks instead of one clean federal standard. The absence of a sports ban here gives regulated venues a legislative model to shop to other statehouses under AG pressure, even as court losses in Ohio and Tennessee strip the federal shield elsewhere. Competitors with direct CFTC designations gain a talking point: they can show state lawmakers a way to regulate without banning entirely.