Senate Panel Puts Tribal Gaming and Prediction Markets Under the Microscope

The issue took center stage during a bipartisan Senate Committee on Indian Affairs roundtable titled “Tracking Prediction Markets’ Exponential Growth: Tribal Implications and Beyond.” Chaired by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Vice Chair Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), the discussion brought together tribal leaders, gaming regulators, state officials and public health advocates to examine the growing legal and economic implications of prediction markets.

Participants included Mark Macarro, president of the National Congress of American Indians; Tehassi Hill, vice chairman of the Indian Gaming Association and chairman of the Oneida Nation; Jamie Hummingbird, chairman of the National Tribal Gaming Commissioners & Regulators; Mathura Sridharan, Ohio’s solicitor general; and Dr. Harry Levant, director of gambling policy at the Public Health Advocacy Institute.

A common theme emerged throughout the discussion: witnesses argued that prediction markets offering sports- and casino-style event contracts are operating outside the longstanding tribal and state gaming regulatory systems while placing tribal governmental revenues and consumer protections at risk.

Related: Tribes urge Congress to clarify prediction market rules at Senate roundtable

“Every dollare diverted to gaming-like prediction markets is a dollar pulled away from tribal jobs, facilities, and community programs,” Macarro testified.

“Indian Country supports responsible innovation and legitimate financial markets,” Hill said “We oppose the use of prediction markets to offer sports and casino-style gambling outside the regulatory framework established by Congress under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. Tribal gaming is not simply an industry. It is the economic foundation that enables Tribal governments to provide healthcare, education, housing, public safety, infrastructure, and other essential services for our citizens.”

Hill emphasized that tribes have spent more than four decades working with Congress, states and federal agencies to build one of the nation’s most comprehensive gaming regulatory systems.

According to Hill, Tribal governments now invest more than $450 million annually in gaming regulation and employ more than 6,000 gaming regulators responsible for protecting the integrity of tribal gaming operations, enforcing responsible gaming standards and safeguarding consumers.

A Growing Concern for Indian Country

Prediction markets allow users to buy and sell contracts tied to future events—including sporting events, elections and economic indicators. Companies offering the products contend they are financial exchanges regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), rather than gambling operators.

Tribal governments disagree, arguing that sports event contracts function much like sports betting while avoiding the tribal-state compacts and regulatory requirements that apply to tribal casinos and sportsbooks under IGRA.

For tribes, the stakes extend well beyond gaming revenue.

Gaming income funds essential governmental services, including healthcare, education, housing, law enforcement, infrastructure and elder services. Tribal leaders argue that allowing prediction markets to expand outside established gaming laws could erode those revenues while undermining tribal regulatory authority.

Committee Explores Economic Impact

During the roundtable, committee members questioned witnesses about the growing impact prediction markets may be having on tribal gaming operations.

Hill said the Indian Gaming Association is working with tribal governments nationwide to measure the economic effects on tribal sportsbooks. While much of the data is proprietary and must be voluntarily shared by tribal operators, he pointed to collaborative research underway among Wisconsin tribes as an example of efforts to develop reliable national data.

The discussion comes as tribes increasingly press federal regulators to recognize that decisions involving prediction markets affect tribal sovereignty as much as financial markets.

Just last week, Murkowski and Schatz urged the CFTC to engage in formal government-to-government consultation with Tribal Nations before finalizing proposed rules governing prediction markets. The senators argued the proposal could significantly affect tribal gaming, tribal economies and tribal sovereignty, and asked the agency to extend its public comment period by 60 days.

Calls for Congressional Action

Hill concluded by urging Congress to move quickly to clarify federal law.

Among the legislative priorities he identified were passage of the Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act (S. 4160), ensuring the CLARITY Act preserves the authority of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and existing tribal-state gaming compacts, and preventing the CFTC from expanding sports- and casino-style gambling through prediction markets.

Tuesday’s roundtable marked one of Congress’ most comprehensive examinations to date of the intersection between prediction markets and tribal gaming.

While the meeting itself produced no immediate legislative action, it underscored growing bipartisan concern that rapidly evolving financial products may be colliding with decades of federal Indian gaming law—raising fundamental questions about tribal sovereignty, regulatory authority and the future of one of Indian Country’s most important economic engines.

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