Odaily Planet Daily reports: In an amicus brief submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, former SEC Chair and former CFTC Chair Gary Gensler stated that the Dodd-Frank Act does not grant the CFTC authority to regulate sports betting.
This position directly contradicts the claims of current CFTC Chair Michael Selig and the prediction market platform Kalshi, who argue that sports-related event contracts fall under federal regulation rather than state gambling jurisdiction.
Gensler noted that if the Dodd-Frank Act truly excluded states from regulating sports betting, it would have been major news at the time—but no one interpreted it that way then. He served as chairman of the CFTC from 2009 to 2014 and was responsible for implementing the rules under the Dodd-Frank Act.
This opinion letter concerns the lawsuit between Kalshi and Ohio. The Ohio gambling regulator had requested that Kalshi cease offering contracts on sports-related events to residents of the state; Kalshi subsequently sued the state, but its request for a preliminary injunction was denied by the court. The CFTC has supported Kalshi, asserting that Ohio has overstepped its authority.
Over the past year, the CFTC has continued to seek to expand its regulatory claims over prediction markets and has sued several states to establish its jurisdiction. This week, the agency also proposed broader rules for prediction markets, generally supporting sports-related contracts but seeking to impose stricter restrictions on betting on events such as terrorist attacks, assassinations, and wars.