The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) — the government agency that oversees prediction markets — said last week that the agency will assert its authority over sports-based event contracts, even if that risks a legal showdown with states.
Those remarks were a 180-degree turn from responses that commission Chair Michael Selig gave to the Senate Agricultural Committee in November when asked about sports betting.
“It is an interpretive question that is working its way through the courts, and so I will respect the decisions of those courts,” Selig told the committee on Nov. 19. “I also am very interested to work with this committee to the extent that there are views that we need to change anything in the statute. This is ultimately a question for the courts.
Those comments did not sit well with Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV).
Although not a member of the committee, she took umbrage with Selig’s remarks, given that Nevada is one of nearly two dozen states and tribal gaming authorities that have filed federal lawsuits seeking to block prediction markets from offering sports wagering contracts (the term companies use to describe the business) in their jurisdictions.
In a statement to The Indy, Cortez Masto said his more recent comments “prove he lied to Congress.”
“Beyond that, he is profoundly wrong,” she wrote. “Prediction markets are facilitating illegal sports gaming across the country, and it’s past time for the CFTC to do its job and enforce both its own rules and the will of Congress.”
