Case: 1:25-cv-15406 Document #: 43-1 Filed: 01/30/26 Page 5 of 17 PageID #:371
tribal revenue. 25 U.S.C. § 2702. Congress made it abundantly clear that tribes—not private entities—must benefit from any gaming conducted on their Indian lands. See 25 U.S.C. § 2710(b)(2)(A), (d)(2)(A). For many tribal governments, gaming is not merely a “commercial” endeavor; rather, it is essential to their self-determination. See Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me- Wuk Indians v. California , 42 F.4th 1024, 1032 (9th Cir. 2022) (“Class III gaming is not only a source of substantial revenue for tribes, but the lifeblood on which many tribes ha[ve] come to rely .” (citation modified)). B. Congress Did Not Repeal IGRA or Prohibit Tribes from Conducting Sports Betting When It Enacted the CEA’s Definition of a “Swap” in 2010. Coinbase does not assert that its conduct complies with IGRA. In fact, Coinbase has made no attempt to ensure that its sports-betting activities on Indian lands across the country comply with IGRA. Instead, Coinbase argues that Congress’s definition of a single term— “swaps”—within a statute whose entire purpose is to address the risk, discovery, and dissemination of commodity prices, 7 U.S.C. § 5(a)–(b), effectively repealed core provisions of IGRA. Under this theory, Congress silently stripped away tribes’ and states’ longstanding authority over sports betting (and potentially other kinds of class III gaming) while allowing for- profit companies like Coinbase to run internet casinos pursuant to their own private oversight. Coinbase’s argument thus does double violence. On one hand, by permitting Coinbase to offer sports betting on tribal land, its argument sweeps aside Congress’s recognition that “Indian tribes have the exclusive right to regulate gaming activity on Indian lands.” 25 U.S.C. § 2701(5). On the other, it prohibits tribes from offering sports betting that IGRA plainly authorizes. See 25 C.F.R. § 502.4(c). Moreover, if Coinbase’s position is adopted, the reach of this definition could extend beyond sports betting to encompass other forms of gaming because Coinbase’s preemption
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