Press Release
For Immediate Release

Contact: James May
(916) 754 7540
james@cniga.com

Statement from CNIGA Chairman James Siva Ahead of House Agriculture Hearing on Sports Event Prediction Markets

July 20, 2026

Ahead of Tuesday’s House Agriculture Subcommittee hearing, “Examining Customer Protections and Market Integrity in Sports Event Prediction Markets,” CNIGA Chairman James Siva issued the following statement:

“Prediction market companies are asking Congress and regulators to trust them while they repackage sports betting as financial trading, market it to consumers like gambling, and then claim they should not have to follow gaming laws. That is not innovation. It is regulatory evasion.

“This hearing should not be treated as an abstract debate about financial products. If a platform lets people put money on who wins a football game, how an athlete performs, or the outcome of a casino-style game, that is gambling by another name.

“Congress should ask hard questions about whether these companies are misleading consumers, how often ordinary users actually win, why they should be allowed to operate without the safeguards required of lawful gaming, and what happens to tribal governments if sports wagering moves through a federal loophole instead of the tribal and state regulatory framework Congress created.

“For Indian Country, this is about more than gambling. Tribal gaming revenues fund health care, education, housing, public safety, infrastructure, elder services, and economic development. Those services should not be put at risk because well-funded companies have found a way to call sports betting something else.

“The Committee should use this hearing to get answers, and Congress should act to stop prediction markets from becoming a backdoor for nationwide, unregulated sports gambling.”

Questions Congress should ask at the hearing

1. Are prediction market companies misleading consumers?
Recent reporting has raised serious concerns about how Polymarket marketed sports-event contracts, including allegations involving simulated or fabricated trading demonstrations, exaggerated profit claims, and undisclosed paid influencer relationships. The Committee should ask whether consumers are being led to believe these products are safer, easier, or more profitable than they really are.

2. How many ordinary users actually win?
If prediction markets are being promoted as financial trading, the public deserves to know whether average consumers are making money or whether the platforms depend on retail users losing. The Committee should ask for clear data on user outcomes, loss rates, repeat deposits, and whether young or inexperienced users are being targeted with gambling-style marketing.

3. Why should these platforms avoid the safeguards required of lawful gaming?
State and tribal gaming systems require licenses, age verification, responsible gaming programs, anti-money-laundering controls, geolocation, integrity monitoring, and accountability to regulators. The Committee should ask why prediction market companies offering sports-event contracts should be exempt from safeguards that exist to protect consumers and preserve market integrity.

4. What is the impact on tribal governments and Indian Country?
Sports-event contracts threaten the tribal and state gaming framework established under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and tribal-state compacts. The Committee should ask how unregulated sports wagering through prediction markets could affect tribal government revenues that support health care, education, housing, public safety, infrastructure, elder services, and economic development.

5. Is the CFTC enforcing the law or creating a loophole?
Congress should examine whether the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has failed to enforce existing prohibitions on event contracts involving gaming or activities unlawful under state or tribal law. The Committee should ask whether CFTC oversight is being used to legitimize sports wagering that would otherwise be subject to state and tribal gaming laws.

6. Could crypto and decentralized finance make the loophole worse?
If prediction markets move further into crypto or decentralized platforms, companies may claim they are merely software providers rather than gambling operators. The Committee should ask whether pending crypto legislation could create a broader backdoor for nationwide mobile gambling without licenses, age verification, revenue sharing, or respect for tribal sovereignty.

About the CNIGA
The California Nations Indian Gaming Association is a nonprofit association comprising 58 federally recognized tribal governments dedicated to protecting tribal sovereignty and the inherent right of tribes to conduct gaming on Indian lands.

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