November 17, 2025
The Honorable Senator Jerry Moran United States Senate 521 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Re: Hearing on Nomination of Michael Selig to the Commodities Futures Trading Commission Dear Senator Moran: I want to introduce myself as the new Chairman of the Indian Gaming Association (“IGA”), and its over 120 federally recognized Indian Tribes. I am following up on my friend’s and former IGA Chairman Ernie Stevens Jr.’s, June 2025 letter, to make you aware of illegal sports and events wagering occurring across the Country in every jurisdiction. In April, with very little notice and in disregard of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), the Commodities Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) reversed their policy against gambling contracts. Since that announcement in April, there has been a rapid expansion of online sports betting and what prediction market companies euphemistically refer to as “event contracts,” which in actuality is pure sports gambling and other nebulous bets on the weather, pop culture, and even elections. 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. Selig 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
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