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Ahmed Barakat
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A coalition of more than 50 sports organizations, national governments, and labor unions submitted a letter to the Senate on June 16, demanding that Digital Assets The Market Clarity Act also includes clear language to prohibit betting markets from awarding gaming contracts to casinos. This is a direct shot at platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi that have created businesses for virtual currency companies under the CFTC.
Signatories include the American Gaming Association (AGA), the Indian Gaming Association (IGA), and UNITE HERE, which represents 300,000 hotel, gaming, and restaurant workers in the US and Canada.
The letter states that betting market platforms have led to the largest increase in gambling in US history over the past 18 months without government approval, regulatory approval, or proper consumer protection.
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The Coalition’s Core Argument: The CFTC Was Never Built to Police Gambling
The terms of this agreement are specific and subject to release. These groups don’t just argue that sports betting is bad law. According to the agreement, the CFTC has no power and no regulatory basis. “Sports betting falls outside the CFTC’s remit and cannot be offered through market prediction platforms,” ​​the letter says.
The CFTC was established to oversee the stock and derivatives markets, not to police betting integrity, access to minors, or gambling safety – none of which set the record straight.
AGA President Bill Miller has previously stated that reliable gaming systems are being “undermined by so-called ‘prediction markets’ that are attacking state, local, and tribal governments.”
The President of UNITE HERE, Gwen Mills, put it as a job threat: the lives of workers “are now at risk because of the betting markets that operate illegal sports betting in violation of Tribal and state laws.”
The IGA’s concern continues to grow, that the Clarity Act, without a clear record, could allow sports betting across the country through CFTC-registered platforms, bypassing the national system that governs where betting is offered.
The American Gaming Association has also said that states will lose about $ 1 billion in taxes to the betting market from the beginning of 2025, although market participants dispute the figure.
Senator John Hickenlooper of Colorado made it clear: “The CFTC has absolutely no experience in regulating sports betting. Worse, the CFTC has failed to use its power to protect sports bettors from insider trading, market manipulation, fraudulent advertising, and financial instability.”
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The Battle for the Clarity Act: Three Blocks, Nine Days, One Quarter
The letter of sports agreement falls on a bill that already has problems. The The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act cleared the Senate Banking Committee 15-9 on May 18a meaningful vote count but that does not resolve the three obstacles blocking the bottom line.
Unresolved contention in the bill’s language, two competing committee drafts that must be included, and 60 votes that require more consensus than committee votes indicate.
With just nine business days until the July 4th holiday, Senate organizers are faced with a decision whether to fold the anti-gambling contract language into the Clarity Act or leave it for a separate Schiff-Curtis bill. S
Senators Adam Schiff and John Curtis introduced the Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act (S.4160) in March 2026, which would amend the Commodity Exchange Act to prohibit CFTC-registered entities from listing contracts related to any betting or gaming event, or offering casino-style products such as poker or blackjack. The bill protects national and tribal sports governance as regulated, exactly what the IGA and AGA want to establish.
The trigger for this persuasive pressure was the adoption of the CFTC’s rules in early June 2026, which advanced the system to allow sports contracts on the prediction markets. Barring injury-related markets, call-ups, high school athletics, and games of chance, but leaving talent-related contracts may be open.
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