- A bipartisan coalition of 39 states and D.C. filed an amicus brief backing Nevada in Ninth Circuit litigation over whether prediction-market platforms can offer sports-betting products as federally regulated “event contracts” outside state gambling laws, arguing the CFTC cannot use federal commodities law to displace states’ traditional authority over sports betting.
- The brief was filed in consolidated cases involving Nevada and prediction-market platforms, which claim their event contracts — allowing wagers on game scores and athlete performances — are federally regulated “swaps” within the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction; the CFTC filed its own amicus brief backing that position.
- The coalition argues the court should give no special deference to the CFTC’s new position, saying Congress never clearly gave the agency sole authority over sports betting, an area traditionally regulated by states, and that the agency’s theory would improperly expand federal power into a field where states have greater expertise.
- The amici urge the court to affirm, preserving states’ authority to regulate sports betting regardless of how platforms package the wagers.