Bipartisan bill aims to ban sports on prediction markets

A bipartisan bill proposed on Monday seeks to block prediction markets from offering wagers on sporting events.

The legislation would restrict platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket and other entities registered with the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission from listing or making available any "agreement, contract, or transaction relating to any sporting event or athletic competition." It would also bar similar contracts for casino-style games like blackjack and poker.

U.S. Senators Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and John Curtis (R-Utah) introduced the bill to amend the Commodity Exchange Act.

While traditional sports gambling falls under state regulation, prediction markets use a different trading mechanism that falls under federal oversight.

"Sports prediction contracts are sports bets -- just with a different name," Schiff said in a statement. "These contracts are currently offered in all fifty states in clear violation of state and federal law.

"It's time for Congress to step in and eliminate this backdoor which violates state consumer protections, intrudes upon tribal sovereignty, and offers no public revenue."

Curtis said the Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act is designed to respect states' authority, protect families and keep "speculative financial products out of spaces where they don't belong."

"Too many young people in Utah are getting exposed to addictive sports betting and casino-style gaming contracts that belong under state control, not under federal regulators," Curtis said in a statement.

Kalshi spokesperson Elisabeth Diana countered in a statement that federally regulated prediction markets "offer a fairer choice to consumers, with no house that restricts winners and hooks people the more they lose."

"Banning sports on regulated prediction markets would just push this behavior offshore, where no regulation exists," Diana said, per Front Office Sports. "It's clear this bill is motivated by casino interests that are threatened by competition. They're more worried about protecting their monopolies than protecting consumers."

Prediction markets recently have soared in popularity in the U.S., with more than $1.2 billion in total trading on the day of last month's Super Bowl, according to NBC News.

--Field Level Media