June 6, 2025
The Honorable Senator Jerry Moran United States Senate 521 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Re:
June 10 th Hearing on Nomination of Brian Quintenz
Dear Senator Moran: On behalf of the Indian Gaming Association (“IGA”), and its over 120 federally recognized Indian Tribes, I write to make you aware of illegal sports and events wagering occurring across the Country in every jurisdiction. Due to a sudden change in the Commodities Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) policy against gambling contracts, there has been a rapid expansion of online sports betting and other so-called “event contracts” across the country. This rapid expansion of betting authorized by the CFTC change in policy has prompted multiple schemes and attempted shortcuts to take advantage of the State prohibitions and regulations on sports betting without having to follow federal, state and tribal laws. In response to this sudden proliferation of unregulated and unlawful sports betting, seven states – Arizona, Nevada, New Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, Montana, and Maryland – have issued cease and desist letters to KalshiEX, Crypto.com and Robinhood. These letters note that the market providers are in violation of state law and regulatory requirements for sports wagering and order the markets to immediately cease offering sports-related contracts. In response, Kalshi has sued Nevada, New Jersey, and Maryland, and Crypto.com has sued Maryland, seeking preliminary injunctions preventing enforcement of state law. The IGA requests that you ask Mr. Quintenz if he supports such an abrupt change in CFTC policy that now allows for all Americans to bet on sports, political events, and other outlandish events such as volcano eruptions . Pursuant to the Commodities Exchange Act (“CEA”), certain self-certified entities may offer “event contracts” for commodities trades in a regulated marketplace overseen by the CFTC. Event contracts are historically used to protect disruptions in our food supply and to protect farmers and natural resource producers from unexpected events that could impact their products. They are useful to aggregate information and predict the likelihood of specific events, which can be used for decision-making, planning, or even as a financial tool. They are usually tied to events with clear, defined economic-related outcomes, like a macroeconomic indicator, corporate earnings, or dollar value of crops damaged by a weather event.
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