A companion bill was filed Thursday in the U.S. House of Representatives proposing to ban sports event contracts and casino-style gaming from prediction markets.
Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford and Republican Rep. Mark Amodei, both of Nevada, introduced the Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act Thursday. It comes on the heels of the Senate version of the same bill introduced this past March. That was also a bill with bipartisan sponsorship, led by Democrats Adam Schiff of California and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Republican John Curtis of Utah.
“This is about protecting jobs, protecting consumers, and protecting the integrity of our gaming industry,” Horsford said in a press release. “Nevada has always been the gold standard for gaming regulations. These companies are exploiting a federal loophole that allows them to effectively sidestep state oversight that every other legal sportsbook must follow. They’ve already cost states over $1 billion in lost gaming tax revenue money that should have gone toward funding schools, roads, and critical programs. That’s why I introduced this bill to close the loophole, hold these companies to the same standard, and protect Nevadans.”
The bill tackles numerous aspects of prediction markets and would effectively ban sports and casino-style event contracts. It would not, however, touch non-sports contracts such as those covering weather, economics, politics, etc. It would also include a rule to ensure nothing at the federal level could usurp tribal sovereignty when it comes to gaming.
“Gaming policy has long been the responsibility of states and tribes, not unelected federal regulators,” Amodei said. “This bipartisan bill closes a federal loophole that allows sports betting to masquerade as financial trading and ensures legitimate event contracts remain under the CFTC’s jurisdiction.”
The measure, along with its companion bill in the Senate, is one of more than a dozen bills aiming to rein in prediction markets.
“This important bill reinforces Congressional intent that gaming is governed by state and tribal law,” American Gaming Association CEO and President Bill Miller said in the press release issued by the congressmen. “The AGA applauds Representatives Horsford and Amodei for introducing the companion legislation to Senators Schiff and Curtis. Together, these bills represent a bipartisan and bicameral effort to protect consumers, uphold state and tribal authority on regulating gaming, and stop so-called ‘prediction markets’ from offering backdoor sports betting that is siphoning billions of dollars in tax revenue from local communities across America.”
Senate Democrats urge similarly
Horsford and Amodei’s filing of the legislation comes on the heels of a letter sent last week by a dozen Senate Democrats urging the chairs and ranking members of the Banking and Agriculture committees to build gaming protections into pending digital asset legislation.
The July 17 letter, led by Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, argues the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act and the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act would make the problem worse by stripping oversight from DeFi betting protocols and letting prediction markets offer sports and casino-style gaming nationwide without state or tribal licenses.
The senators want two things added to any final bill: a savings clause making clear nothing preempts the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act or tribal-state compacts, and an outright prohibition on CFTC-registered entities listing contracts tied to sports outcomes, player statistics, or casino-style games.
