Eight Democratic senators urged the CFTC to prevent prediction-market platforms from offering contracts tied to wildfires. In a letter to chair Michael Selig, they cited public-safety and insider-trading risks and referred to more than $1.2 million in Polymarket bets linked to the Palisades and Eaton fires in January 2025.
The request presses the CFTC to set limits on wildfire contracts offered by prediction-market platforms.
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Crypto.com and Novig have sued Missouri officials in federal court to stop the state enforcing its sports betting laws against their sports event contracts. The suits were filed on Friday as 30-day deadlines expired for six prediction market operators ordered by Attorney General Catherine Hanaway to stop offering the contracts or obtain state authorisation. Crypto.com argues the Commodity Exchange Act gives the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction.
Crypto.com and Novig have taken Missouri officials to federal court in an effort to block enforcement of the state's sports betting laws against their sports event contracts. The suits arrived on Friday, the same day that 30-day deadlines ran out for six prediction market operators told by Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway to halt sports event contracts or secure state authorisation.
The CFTC proposed two measures to distinguish event contracts from betting and casino gambling under federal rules. One would expand the swap definition to cover contracts tied to sports, political, cultural and weather outcomes; the other, issued as an interim final rule, would exclude casino-style gambling products. Both measures allow 30 days for public comments, the report said.
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has proposed classifying event contracts linked to cultural events, weather, politics and sports as swaps, while an interim final rule excludes casino-style gambling products from that definition. Both measures carry 30-day comment periods, and the interim rule takes effect upon publication in the Federal Register, the CFTC said.
The CFTC released an interim rule on Friday aimed at distinguishing sports event contracts from traditional sports betting. The outlet linked the rule to appellate cases involving sportsbooks.
The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that Ohio and Tennessee can apply state gambling laws to event contracts in a case involving Kalshi. Judge Julia Smith Gibbons said Kalshi had not shown that its sports products qualified as swaps under federal law. Kalshi said it expects further legal review to overturn the ruling.