The U.S. sports betting world moves quickly and unpredictably in 2026. In order to properly take stock of it all, we offer InGame’s “EndGame,” an end-of-week compilation of the top storylines, some overlooked items, and all the other news bits from this past week that we found interesting.
Nevada senator: Selig ‘lied’
Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto didn’t mince words in talking about new Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig, who has recently embraced sports event markets. During confirmation hearings, Selig punted questions about the controversial markets to the courts, but has since said that he will instruct the agency to file amicus briefs in support of the contracts and develop specific rules around them.
His U-turn on the subject “prove[s] he lied to Congress,” Cortez Masto told Indy Gaming Wednesday. “Beyond that, he is profoundly wrong. Prediction markets are facilitating illegal sports gaming across the country, and it’s past time for the CFTC to do its job and enforce both its own rules and the will of Congress.”
Jill R. Dorson
Big Ten: End prop bets on college athletes
The Big Ten Student-Athlete Issues Commission sent a letter to NCAA President Charlie Baker on Tuesday, urging the NCAA to continue pushing for limitations on, or the outright elimination of, proposition betting involving individual student-athletes competing in college sports. Regardless of any wrongdoing, “When bets are tied to individual statistics or plays, it creates pressure and suspicion around student-athletes’ performance,” the letter said, rendering college athletes vulnerable to outside influence and financial temptations.
The letter stated that prohibiting prop betting on college athletics “would be a meaningful step toward reducing harassment, protecting mental well-being, and preserving the integrity of college competition.”
The letter was signed by 22 sports officials from 18 Big Ten universities.
‘Any bet at any time’
Online casino and sports betting developer LuckBox Studios last week hired FanDuel’s former vice president of trading product and general manager for Australia as its new chief customer officer. John Maguire, who previously “delivered complex trading and pricing systems at global scale” for FanDuel, will oversee the development of the next-generation sports trading platform for LuckBox, which created the same-game parlay/multi, according to its website.
The immediate focus for Maguire and LuckBox will be to build “an ethos of any bet being placed at any time”— thus furthering the prediction markets’ ambitions for the “gamification of every aspect of human existence,” as expressed by Rep. Ro Khanna of California.
‘Regulate Québec’s 2,000 gambling platforms’
As Alberta moves to follow Ontario’s lead in hosting open and competitive iGaming and sports betting markets in Canada, a Québec trade organization continues to agitate to get in on regulated digital gambling as well.
The Québec Online Gaming Coalition (QOGC), consisting of DraftKings, Entain, Flutter, Rush Street, and others, on Monday submitted a brief to the provincial Ministry of Finance with four recommendations on regulating and taxing the 2,000 or so gray-market websites that offer casino and poker games and sports betting to Québec customers.
By preserving Loto-Québec’s monopoly on casinos, lotteries, and online gaming, the province is losing out on $300 million in taxes and putting players at risk, according to the QOGC. Opening the market to other operators “would channel the vast majority of online gaming into a stable and regulated environment, which is desirable for everyone,” wrote Ariane M. Gauthier, coalition spokesperson, in the brief.
FanDuel: Credit cards verboten
FanDuel on Wednesday joined DraftKings and Fanatics in disallowing credit cards from being used on its site. The ban goes into effect March 2, according to a notice on the app. Fanatics has never accepted credit cards for deposits, and DraftKings stopped accepting them last August after Massachusetts fined the company $450,000 for violating state law by taking them.
Seven other states — Tennessee, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, Illinois, and Vermont — prohibit credit card deposits.
Isaac Rose-Berman, a gambling and research policy fellow at the American Institute for Boys and Men, told Casino Reports that disallowing credit cards isn’t effective from a responsible gambling perspective, while “processing credit card deposits is expensive and annoying for operators.”
Polymarket supermarket markets to Manhattanites
In an unusual publicity stunt, prediction market Polymarket opened a temporary pop-up “free grocery store” in Manhattan’s West Village on Thursday. Shoppers, who have been waiting in long lines, are given tote bags to fill for free with everything from fresh fruit to toilet paper, Pringles to Valentine’s Day cards.
The store is open 2-5 p.m. through Monday to all New Yorkers, with no registration or deposit on Polymarket required. The activation is in conjunction with a $1 million donation by Polymarket to the Food Bank for New York City, which is stocking the store’s shelves.
Odds and ends
- United States District Court Judge Cristina Silva last weekend denied Coinbase’s emergency request to be allowed to continue operating in Nevada, after regulators sued the Kalshi-related prediction market for violating state gambling laws. Coinbase is the latest prediction market to lose in Nevada; a state court issued a temporary restraining order late last month, forcing Polymarket to cease offering event-based contracts to Silver State residents.
- The Alberta gambling regulator Feb. 5 issued amendments to the rules it rolled out in January. The updates are technical in nature, with a focus on cybersecurity and protecting player data. Provincial officials have not yet set a launch date, but appear to be aiming for the first half of 2026.
ICYMI on InGame
Kalshi Overtakes DraftKings In Valuation After Sportsbook Giant’s Shares Plunge
MLB Commish: It Might Be Time To Partner With Prediction Markets
Somewhere Between Bill Maher And Lucky Larry, Gambling Lost Its Soul
Examining The US Prediction Market Landscape From The United Kingdom
New York Sportsbooks Reap $250 Million In January
Sportradar Report: Global Match Fixing Corruption Decreased Slightly In 2025
Kalshi To Give Rebates To Sportsbooks As It Courts Traders To Hedge Sports Results
Didech Submits Bill To Repeal Illinois Sports Wagering Surcharge
University Of Tennessee Student Worker Fired For Betting On Vols On Kalshi
