After traveling across the country, meeting with tribes and lobbying members of Congress earlier this month, the chairman of the Indian Gaming Association (IGA) urged a strong attendance at next month’s annual Tradeshow & Convention in San Diego.
“Please register and encourage your tribal leaders to register, because this issue is too important,” said David Bean. “We’re under threat. Our ability to provide for our communities are under threat. Our sovereignty is under threat. It’s important to attend the annual trade show and join the association. Attending the trade show helps us develop the budget to take on this battle in Washington, D.C.”
Bean appeared on the IGA weekly webinar with Victor Rocha, chair of the annual conference, who responded, “United we stand. Divided we fall.”
After speaking to tribes across the country, Bean recently spoke at the National Congress of American Indians and hosted a congressional briefing in Washington with members of the Senate. He was in San Diego this week at the Western Indian Gaming Conference hosted by the California Nations Indian Gaming Association.
“The laws we signed up to follow to regulate our own gaming operation are being trampled on, disregarded, and ignored,” Bean said. “This has taken off like wildfire and it’s an incredible violation of the law – federal, state, and tribal. Our mission is clear: to protect tribal sovereignty, Indian gaming, and our communities and find ways to move forward as our ancestors have done before us.
Sports betting prediction markets and their advancement across the country by Kalshi, Polymarket, DraftKings, and FanDuel in the past year will be a large focus at this year’s conference. States and tribes contend the prediction markets violate state and federal laws while the operators argue they derive their authority under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Courts have mostly sided with the states and tribes.
When Bean travels across the country meeting with tribal leaders, operators, and regulators, this one issue consistently dominates the conversation. From event contracts offering sports wagering under federal oversight to the continued expansion of sports betting into all 50 states, tribes are confronting a rapidly shifting national landscape. Tribal leaders are raising concerns about exclusivity, regulatory authority, and the long-term consequences of allowing wagering to move outside established state and tribal frameworks, Bean said.
“We’ve been pounding the pavement visiting tribes and tribal organizations,” Bean said. “In Washington, we had a robust dialogue regarding the CFTC. We took tribal leaders on the Hill to talk to members of the Senate. There’s genuine concern. While it’s a new topic, it’s a complex topic in front of us and tribes all around the nation are concerned. They view it as an incredible intrusion on tribal sovereignty.”
Tribes have been fighting for the right to have gaming for 40 years to fund government services and have faced robust regulatory bodies and other challenges along the way, Bean said.
“Folks are in shock that these illegal unregulated sports betting prediction markets are able to grow so fast, given our 40-year journey,” Bean said. “We were $43.9 billion last year (in gaming revenue) and those folks in prediction markets have generated revenues in excess of $80 billion in an industry that’s less than 14 months old.”
IGA is working with the National Congress of American Indians and has provided an outline for tribal leaders when reaching out to members of Congress.
“When one of us is threatened with tribal sovereignty, we’re all threatened,” Bean said. “Everyone is of the mindset that we have to act now.”
Bean said it’s frustrating that prediction markets are deriving authority from the CFTC to operate in all 50 states, even where gambling isn’t allowed. “(Prediction markets) are attempting to rebrand gambling, but at the end of the day it’s sports betting.”
Tribes are encouraged to talk to their state attorneys general and join in writing briefs on legal cases across the country.
“Like any issue that threatens tribes, we come together,” Bean said. “We’ve been telling our story, talking about the issues, history, and rapid growth. If left unchecked, it’s concerning to so many and not just tribes.”
Bean will be talking next month to the Republican Association of Attorney Generals in Louisiana. Many of them have signed on to legal briefs opposing prediction markets. Prediction markets are a bipartisan issue, he said.
Rocha said the entire country has been caught “flat-footed” by what’s happening with prediction markets. He singled out Utah, which doesn’t allow gambling and is trying to crack down on prediction markets.
“They are moving so fast to entrench themselves, because they know this isn’t sustainable,” Rocha said. “They’re trying to move as fast as they can to cement their profits.”
Members of Congress aren’t prepared to take on the Trump administration, which supports sports betting prediction markets, Bean said. They’re fearful of the Trump family, he added.
“Lawmakers recognize it’s a problem one-on-one in their office, but that’s where it ends,” Bean said. “They’re not going to take any action beyond that until other folks join in screaming at the top of the hill that this is a problem and how they are breaking the law.”
The laws tribes follow focus on gambling operators knowing their customers and the sources of their bankrolls, Bean said. Crypto is being used in prediction markets and it’s used in illicit activity around the world, he noted.
“We’ve grown because of regulation. But when looking at these illegal sports betting contracts, there are no guardrails,” Bean said. “There’s no age verification and no verification of sources of funds and you don’t know who is placing the bet. You don’t know if it’s a bet with inside information.”
Rocha described how tribes were successful in pushing back against sweepstakes betting that offered a form of online casino gambling, but prediction markets, with Donald Trump Jr.’s ties to Kalshi, are more entrenched.
“When the states start fighting back, a lot of these politicians need coverage from their home states,” Rocha said. “I do feel everyone is waking up to the threat of prediction markets, not just to tribal sovereignty, but state sovereignty. That’s why these coalitions (working with the American Gaming Association and others) are so important.”
