Case: 1:25-cv-15406 Document #: 43-1 Filed: 01/30/26 Page 13 of 17 PageID #:379
chose to prohibit sports betting nationally through PASPA, it did so through state regulation, rather than by directly regulating private actors. See Murphy , 584 U.S. at 474. Similarly, courts have long recognized tribes’ inherent sovereign authority to regulate gaming on their lands. See Cabazon , 480 U.S. at 207–14. Though IGRA imposes limited restrictions on this authority, IGRA still broadly advances tribes’ “exclusive right to regulate [and offer] gaming activity” (including sports betting) on their Indian lands as a means of promoting tribal economic development and self-determination. See 25 U.S.C. §§ 2701(5), 2702(2); W. Flagler Assocs., Ltd. v. Haaland , 71 F.4th 1059, 1062–63 (D.C. Cir. 2023), cert. denied , 144 S. Ct. 2671 (2024). And later-enacted statutes of general applicability—like the CEA—cannot repeal earlier-enacted legislation that is specifically designed to advance the United States’ special relationship with tribes—such as IGRA—without a clear statement from Congress. See, e.g. , Mancari , 417 U.S. at 550. Accordingly, because regulating gaming (including sports betting) has long been a traditional state and tribal power, Coinbase must show clear congressional language overturning federal policy. But it cannot because no such language exists. Rather, the CEA actually reinforces the federal policy in favor of state gambling regulation by disclaiming preemption of state gaming laws. See 7 U.S.C. § 16(e). And nothing in the definition of “swap” indicates that Congress meant to overturn the entire field of sports-betting regulation or Indian gaming. Second, sports betting has a “unique place in American history and society,” and therefore its own “political history.” See FDA v. Brown & Williamson , 529 U.S. 120, 159–60 (2000), superseded by statute 21 U.S.C. § 387 et seq . Given this social and political history, at the time of the 2010 CEA amendments, Congress had already “for better or for worse, … created a distinct regulatory scheme” for sports betting—namely, PASPA. Id. The conflict between
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