Tribal leaders say prediction markets pose ‘existential threat’ to Indian gaming

Tribal gaming leaders and experts reportedly made it clear they see sports event futures as an “existential threat” to Indian Gaming during a webinar on Wednesday (May 14).

According to InGame, the webinar, hosted by the Indian Gaming Association and titled “This Is Happening Now: How Prediction Markets Undermine Tribal Gaming Rights,” included tribal law experts who raised serious concerns. They warned that platforms like Kalshi, which offer sports wagering nationwide, could undermine the legal and economic foundations of Native American gaming.

The strong opposition to this new area of betting, along with the belief that it goes against existing laws, points to the possibility that tribes may take legal action. They could try to block sports futures contracts from being offered on tribal lands or in states where tribes have exclusive gaming rights.

Scott Crowell of the Crowell Law Office Tribal Advocacy Group said, “This is an existential threat…We are not being alarmist.”

Jason Giles, executive director of the Indian Gaming Association, said that if sports futures are allowed to continue, it brings up the question of why tribes would still need to follow the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which governs gambling on tribal lands.

The Indian Gaming Association's Jason Giles said that if sports futures continue to be allowed, it raises the question of why tribes should need to follow IGRA.

“If it’s gaming, it’s violating IGRA. And if it’s not gaming, then why are we following IGRA at all?” he said.

— InGame (@InGameHQ) May 14, 2025

Joseph H. Webster, managing partner at Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker, added that tribes need to find a way to get involved in the legal fight, which is currently being led by states against the growth of sports prediction markets. He pointed out that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has clear rules that ban futures contracts related to gaming, but argued that the agency is simply choosing not to enforce them.

Can “gaming” just be restricted to ‘playing games’ (as a DC federal court oddly found in the KalshiEx v. CFTC case) when the DC Circuit appeals court (which is deciding this case) regularly hears “gambling” cases arising under the Indian GAMING Regulatory Act? pic.twitter.com/d6tAOwNFHp

— Daniel Wallach (@WALLACHLEGAL) March 29, 2025

Webster also mentioned that IGRA came up in a brief filed by Kalshi in its case against Nevada. The company claimed that sports event contracts aren’t covered under IGRA, and even if they were, the CFTC would still have sole authority over them.

He states: “Think about that – they’re essentially saying that Congress, in passing the CEA, has displaced any role for tribes and tribal regulators in what I think is clear to everybody is a gaming activity.

“So the fact that these arguments really haven’t been made, at least not in detail, I think is a concern.”

IGA Conference Chair and webinar host Victor Rocha said the sudden shift in how gaming laws are being enforced reminded him of moments in history that followed a similar pattern.

Rocha said, “Our ancestors had the land, and then the rules were changed right underneath their feet. Well, the rules are changing now.”

ReadWrite has reached out to the Indian Gaming Association for comment.

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