Comment Text:
Secretary Kirkpatrick,
Re: Prediction Markets, RIN 3038-AF65
I write as Chair of the Board of Trustees, the governing body of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), to provide comments to proposed rulemaking by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as set forth in the Federal Register on March 16, 2026. Specifically, we want to address event contracts that involve sporting events that are “contrary to the public interest” that the CFTC has the authority to prohibit pursuant to the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), 7 U.S.C. 7a-2(c)(5)(C).
While the CTUIR supports (and has used) modern, well-regulated derivatives markets that serve legitimate commercial and risk-management purposes, we are concerned that the CEA is increasingly being used to circumvent federal, state, and tribal gaming laws by facilitating sports wagering and casino-style gaming through “event contracts” or “prediction markets.”
Under our Treaty of 1855 (12 Stat. 945, ratified March 8, 1859), the CTUIR reserved the right to self-govern and protect the welfare of its people, including through the exercise of gaming rights as defined under federal law. Tribal gaming is a core exercise of our sovereignty conducted pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (“IGRA”), the CTUIR Gaming Code (which has been approved by the National Indian Gaming Commission) and carefully negotiated tribal-state gaming compacts reviewed and approved by the Secretary of the Interior.
The CTUIR owns and operates the Wildhorse Resort and Casino (Wildhorse) which includes a casino, hotel, golf course, RV Park, cineplex, bowling alley, restaurants and food court and the Arrowhead Travel Plaza. We currently have a $100 million expansion project under construction that includes a new hotel tower, convention center, restaurant and other facilities that will open next year. Wildhorse is critical to our Reservation and the surrounding region’s economy, and Wildhorse revenues form the foundation of the government services provided to our community.
The proliferation of “event contracts” marketed and traded under CFTC oversight threatens to infringe upon these protected rights, laws and our Tribal economy by enabling new forms of de facto gambling outside of IGRA’s jurisdiction that violate our Gaming Code and our Tribal – State Gaming Compact. To the average consumer, event contracts, especially those involving sporting events, are no different from traditional gaming, and outside the statutory and regulatory requirements and safeguards of IGRA, the CTUIR Gaming Code and the Tribal-State Gaming Compact.
The CEA authorizes the CFTC to determine that an event contract is contrary to the public interest if they involve any of these 5 listed activities: 1) activity that is unlawful under federal or state law; 2) terrorism; 3) assassination; 4) war; and 5) gaming. Our comments address items 1 and 5.
Event contracts that involve sporting events on an Indian Reservation, or an event contract executed on a Reservation, violate IGRA in that they are not conducted by the Indian Tribe and in compliance with the Tribe’s Gaming Code and Gaming Compact. Similarly, event contracts that involve the outcome of a sporting event constitute gaming, and CFTC authorizing such event contracts violates federal law (IGRA), the sovereignty and laws of the CTUIR (as well as the laws of the states and other Indian Tribes).
The CFTC asks what factors it should consider in determining the scope and public interest implications of gaming activity. The first and most important factor is to prohibit event contracts on sporting or related activities that violate applicable federal, state or tribal law, such as IGRA or the CTUIR Gaming Code. Pursuant to section 2710(d)(3)(A) of IGRA, Indian tribes and states are authorized to negotiate compacts to regulate “Class III gaming” on a government-to-government basis. Class III gaming includes various casino games, such as slot machines and banked card games, and, importantly here, sports betting. 25 C.F.R. § 502.4.
While neither IGRA nor its implementing regulations expressly define “sports betting,” the term is generally understood to mean “staking or risking . . . something of value upon the outcome of . . . a sporting event . . . upon an agreement or understanding that the person or another person will receive something of value in the event of a certain outcome.” 31 U.S.C. § 5362(1)(A) (definition of “bet or wager” under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act).
In turn, the term “sporting event” may entail a variety of factors surrounding sports competitions. For example, New Jersey defines “sports event” to mean not only the sport game itself, but “any portion thereof.” N.J. Stat. § 5:12A-10. The CTUIR Gaming Compact with Oregon will define “sports book” as “the business of accepting wagers on any sports event by any system or method of wagering…”.
That is precisely what event contracts on sporting events purport to do. An event contract is one that is for a commodity “based upon the occurrence, extent of an occurrence, or contingency [of an event] . . . by a designated contract market or swap execution facility . . . .” 7 U.S.C. § 7a-2(c)(5)(C)(i). As such, a sports event contract is one that is based upon the occurrence or outcome of a sporting event, or any part thereof—meaning such an event contract is one that is based upon the occurrence or outcome of a sporting event, or any part thereof— i.e., sports betting.
The CFTC is authorized to prohibit event contracts as contrary to the public interest if they involve any of the 5 activities listed above. We urge the CFTC to prohibit event contracts involving sporting events based on their violation of federal and, in many cases, state law, as well as tribal law, because such contracts constitute sports betting. Sports betting should be governed by the existing federal, state and tribal laws. Accordingly, the CTUIR urges the CFTC to promulgate regulations that prohibit event contracts for sporting events.
Sincerely,
(Signed)
N. Kathryn Brigham, Chair
Board of Trustees
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
