Press Release
For Immediate Release

Contact: James May
9167547540
james@cniga.com

CNIGA Condemns CFTC Proposed Rule Opening Federal Backdoor for Unregulated Sports Gambling Nationwide

June 12, 2026

Today, following the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s release of a proposed rule on prediction market event contracts, the California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA) condemned the proposal as a federal blueprint for bypassing tribal gaming compacts, state gaming laws, and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). CNIGA called on Congress to pass S.4160, the Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act and urged all tribal governments to submit formal comments opposing the rule before the close of the federal comment period.

“The sports betting sham continues,” said James Siva, Chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association. “This proposed rule is the CFTC putting its stamp of approval on nationwide, unregulated gambling.”

“Instead of reading the more than 3,500 comments CFTC received in response to its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the Commission went ahead and submitted its desired regulation to OMB after just 27 days. Laughably, OMB then declared the rule economically insignificant and approved it after just two weeks and without taking any input from impacted communities.

“Congress must step in. If allowed to stand, the results will be catastrophic. The impact of CFTC’s policy will result in more money coming out of tribal government programs than if Congress eliminated the Bureau of Indian Affairs entirely. With the CLARITY Act pending before Congress today, the time to act is now.”

The current regulations CFTC is supposed to be enforcing, prohibits contracts on gaming. Instead of faithfully adhering to the Commodity Exchange Act, the new proposed rule eliminates the prohibition on gaming entirely. In doing so, the proposal paves the way for nationwide sports betting.

The proposed rule does find that contracts based on pure random chance — roulette, slot-style games, and random number generators — are likely contrary to the public interest, a position CNIGA supports. But the rule stops short of a categorical prohibition and leaves open arguments that poker, mixed skill-and-chance games, electronic games, and other casino-adjacent products could be permitted on a case-by-case basis. CNIGA views this as an open door that prediction market operators will exploit and calls on the CFTC to adopt a categorical ban on all sporting event and casino-style gaming contracts without exception or balancing test.

CNIGA urges Congress to act immediately to pass S.4160, the Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act, H.R. 7840, the Event Contract Enforcement Act, or similar legislation without delay. In addition, CNIGA demands that Congress close loopholes in the so-called CLARITY Act, dealing with cryptocurrency, that would provide yet another loophole for corporate interest to decimate tribal government programs.

Tribal governments have 45 days from the date of Federal Register publication to submit comments to the CFTC. CNIGA is coordinating with the Indian Gaming Association (IGA), the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and California tribal nations on a unified tribal comment and strongly encourages all tribes to participate.

About CNIGA
The California Nations Indian Gaming Association is a non-profit association comprised of 58 federally recognized tribal governments dedicated to the protection of tribal sovereignty and the inherent right of tribes to have gaming on Indian lands.

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