The Indian Gaming Association, alongside tribal leaders and national organizations, issued a unified and urgent call to action condemning what they allege are illegal prediction markets enabled by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The statement was issued today at the 29th Annual Western Indian Gaming Conference hosted this week by the California Nations Indian Gaming Association at Pechanga Resort Casino near San Diego. The group said the prediction markets are “a direct assault on tribal sovereignty, federal law, and lawful gaming.”
Sports betting prediction markets have spread across the country over the past year, claiming they have authority under the CFTC. Tribes contend the sports betting offered by prediction markets was never authorized by Congress and prediction markets violate state and federal law.
The conference featured a three-part series titled “Betting Without Permission: The Existential Threat of Prediction Markets on California Tribal Gaming,” examining the legal, regulatory, and sovereignty implications of prediction markets and their growing threat to tribal and state-regulated gaming.
The opening session was presented by Victor Rocha, conference chairman for the Indian Gaming Association, who warned that federal regulators are attempting to authorize nationwide gambling activity without tribal consent, state authorization, or congressional approval. Tribal leaders and legal experts said that tribal gaming exists within a negotiated legal framework grounded in federal law, tribal-state compacts, and voter approval.
“This is federal overreach at its most dangerous,” Rocha said. “Tribal gaming exists because of negotiated agreements, federal law, and voter approval. Prediction markets attempt to erase that structure through unilateral federal action. Indian Country will not accept that.”
The second session, “Defining the Threat: When Gambling Is Recast as a Financial Product,” was moderated by Indian Gaming Association Executive Director Jason Giles and featured legal and regulatory experts Joseph Webster of Hobbs Strauss and Michael Hoenig, vice president and associate general counsel for gaming at Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation.
Panelists outlined how prediction markets are attempting to bypass tribal and state authority by improperly redefining sports wagering as financial trading, allowing unlicensed and unregulated platforms to operate outside established legal frameworks and consumer protections.
“By allowing these platforms to operate, federal regulators are undermining decades of federal Indian policy and enabling unlawful gaming activity nationwide,” Giles said. “Tribal nations will not stand by while sovereign authority is ignored and lawful gaming is threatened.”
The final session, “The Case for Unified Action: How Tribes Fight Back,” featured Indian Gaming Association Chairman David Bean and National Congress of American Indians President Mark Macarro, focusing on the coordinated national response underway across Indian country and among industry and government partners.
“Prediction markets have rapidly expanded into a multibillion-dollar unregulated industry operating outside established tribal, state, and federal gaming law, while tribal governments continue to uphold one of the most rigorous regulatory systems in the world,” the statement said.
In the most recent report from the National Indian Gaming Association, tribal gaming generated $43.9 billion in revenue through supporting essential government services, healthcare, education, infrastructure, and economic development for tribal nations.
Bean said Indian country is mobilizing to confront this threat through coordinated legal, legislative, and regulatory action.
“Illegal prediction markets are exactly what they sound like: illegal, unregulated, online sports betting that operates outside federal and state law,” Bean said. “Actions by the CFTC under this administration are enabling an unlawful end-run around tribal governments, state regulators, and Congress itself. This is not innovation. This is illegal gambling, and it represents a direct attack on tribal sovereignty and the rule of law.”
As he mentioned in an IGA webinar on Wednesday, Bean said that IGA and its member tribes are actively working with state governments, attorneys general, members of Congress, and national gaming organizations, including the American Gaming Association, to stop what he said are unlawful activities and restore proper regulatory oversight.
“We’re building a unified national coalition to confront this threat,” Bean said. “Tribes, states, and our industry partners are standing together to defend lawful gaming and protect our sovereign rights. We will use every legal, legislative, and regulatory tool available until these illegal prediction markets are stopped.”
As the national organization representing tribal gaming interests across the United States, the Indian Gaming Association is leading coordinated efforts with tribes, the National Congress of American Indians, states, and gaming partners to ensure federal regulators are held accountable and that existing law is enforced, Giles said.
“The alarm has been sounded across Indian Country,” Giles said. “This is a defining moment. Tribal nations are unified, mobilized, and prepared to defend our sovereignty and protect the integrity of lawful gaming. The message from the Western Indian Gaming Conference was unequivocal: prediction markets operating outside established law must be stopped. Tribal nations, states, and industry partners remain united in their determination to protect lawful gaming, defend tribal sovereignty, and ensure that no federal agency or administration can unilaterally authorize gambling nationwide in violation of federal law and tribal rights.”