CFTC ‘plans meeting with tribal groups’ over prediction markets
After initial uncertainty about a meeting between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and various gaming-related stakeholders, word is that some tribal groups and a senior CFTC official might now be meeting after all.
According to InGame, the federal agency recently sent a letter to select tribal groups, inviting them to join a conference call with Acting Chairman Caroline Pham on May 29 at 1 pm.
Scoop: Game back on — May 29. At least between certain tribal interests and the CFTC, which oversees futures trading in the U.S.
Per sources, conference call is scheduled between tribal groups and Acting Chairman Caroline Pham.
— Brett Smiley v2.1 (@brettsmiley) May 21, 2025
It looks like this upcoming conference call will act as a scaled-down version of the originally planned roundtable, which was set to bring together a wide mix of stakeholders, including tribal groups, commercial gambling companies, academics, professional sports leagues, and the American Gaming Association—a trade group that represents many players in the regulated gambling industry.
As of now, it’s unclear whether the CFTC plans to hold separate discussions with other groups that have differing commercial interests.
CFTC roundtable on prediction markets previously cancelled
Kalshi has already won several injunctions against them. Credit: Kalshi
The roundtable, originally planned for April 30, was never officially announced to the public by the CFTC. Participants weren’t given a reason for the cancellation, and they were told there was no update on when it would be rescheduled.
On February 5, the CFTC announced it would hold an event focused on prediction markets. That announcement came shortly after Kalshi and Crypto.com introduced sports event contracts.
In a press statement at the time, the CFTC said: “The goal of the roundtable is to develop a robust administrative record with studies, data, expert reports, and public input from a wide variety of stakeholder groups to inform the Commission’s approach to regulation and oversight of prediction markets, including sports-related event contracts.”
The event was supposed to take place 45 days after the close of the comment period, which officially ended on February 21. That means it should have happened sometime last month.
Acting Chairman Pham had stated: “Unfortunately, the undue delay and anti-innovation policies of the past several years have severely restricted the CFTC’s ability to pivot to common-sense regulation of prediction markets.
“Despite my repeated dissents and other objections since 2022, the current Commission interpretations regarding event contracts are a sinkhole of legal uncertainty and an inappropriate constraint on the new Administration.
“Prediction markets are an important new frontier in harnessing the power of markets to assess sentiment to determine probabilities that can bring truth to the Information Age. The CFTC must break with its past hostility to innovation and take a forward-looking approach to the possibilities of the future.”
Tribal groups warn about threat of platformsEarlier this month, ReadWrite shared that tribal gaming leaders and experts didn’t hold back during a webinar, saying they see sports event futures as a serious, even “existential,” threat to Indian gaming.
The webinar, hosted by the Indian Gaming Association (IGA) and titled “This Is Happening Now: How Prediction Markets Undermine Tribal Gaming Rights,” raised concerns that platforms like Kalshi, which offer sports betting across the country, could end up chipping away at the legal and financial foundation of tribal gaming.
Scott Crowell of the Crowell Law Office Tribal Advocacy Group said, “This is an existential threat…We are not being alarmist.”
IGA Conference Chair and webinar host Victor Rocha said the sudden shift in how gaming laws are being enforced reminded him of historical moments that followed a similar pattern. Rocha said, “Our ancestors had the land, and then the rules were changed right underneath their feet. Well, the rules are changing now.”
In Nevada and New Jersey, Kalshi successfully secured a preliminary injunction, while the decision is still pending in Maryland.
ReadWrite has reached out to the CFTC for comment.
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