Tribes across the country are already feeling the financial impacts from prediction markets and the chairman of the Indian Gaming Association vowed to fight them and the regulatory agency that greenlighted them.
David Bean made his comments Wednesday, while speaking to the national media during a 30-minute press conference at IGA’s annual convention and tradeshow at the San Diego Convention Center.
Bean said IGA has a report from a New Mexico tribe that sports betting revenue is down 29% so far in 2026. That’s being attributed to the sports betting prediction markets that have been rolled out nationwide under the auspices of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
IGA is raising funds from tribes nationwide for a legal defense fund to target the CFTC in court, arguing it’s violating its own regulations and the Commodity Exchange Act, which tribes say doesn’t grant operators the right to offer sports wagering. The CFTC has taken the position that prediction markets are similar to stock trades.
After providing the numbers from New Mexico, Bean told reporters and the crowd gathered on the tradeshow floor that the IGA is in the process of gathering data showing how much tribal sportsbook revenues are down. He said he’s heard other reports of a decline in sportsbook revenues in the South, which in turn means reduced tax revenue for states. A decline in tribal gaming revenue impacts tribal services, he said.
“We don’t want to wait for what started out as a brushfire and evolved into a wildfire to go unchecked,” Bean said.
Bean said legal strategy will mirror the legislative strategy. For the last 15 to 16 months, the IGA has been working Congress, sending representatives and senators the message that the CFTC should do its job and regulate prediction markets; they should not allow what the tribes and states consider illegal activity. He said legislation proposed in Congress to stop prediction markets going back to the late IGA Chair Ernie Stevens Jr. came about by tribal leaders “pounding the halls of Congress” on both sides of the aisle.
Before taking questions, Bean continued to serve notine that the tribes will not sit by and allow prediction markets to encroach on their sovereignty and revenue.
“This is about sovereignty and this is about fairness,” Bean said. “This is about protecting our communities and our industry. The message from Indian Country is clear. We will not allow federal agencies to ignore our laws and we will not allow our economies to be undermined, and we will not allow our sovereignty to be diminished.”
