Nevada Rep. Titus Pushes Back On CFTC Allowing ‘Backdoor Way To Legalize Sports Betting’

Nevada’s Dina Titus, now in her seventh two-year term as an elected official in the House of Representatives, has experience with following proper processes and protocols to get things done.

And in a letter sent last Friday to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Acting Chairwoman Caroline D. Pham, Rep. Titus took issue with prediction market operators offering a form of sports betting without going through all the proper processes and protocols.

“This year, platforms have started to offer contracts on sporting events,” Titus wrote about midway through her two-page letter, a copy of which she posted on social media. She was referring to the likes of Kalshi, Crypto.com, and Robinhood, among others, permitting users to risk money, in a stock-market-like format, on the outcome of the Super Bowl and other sports contests. “Event contracts on sporting events bring this relatively new industry directly into conflict with state-regulated gaming operators,” Titus continued.

‘Several troubling effects’

As a congressperson from not just a regulated gaming state but the gaming state with the longest history of legal sports betting and casino operations, Titus next got into the meat of her reason for writing to Pham and the CFTC, which regulates prediction markets:

“Permitting prediction contracts on sporting events has several troubling effects that the Commission should address before issuing any rulemaking. Prediction contracts on sports create a backdoor way to legalize sports betting in states that have not authorized it. The regulation and legalization of sports betting have traditionally been dealt with at the state level in the United States. As the Commission noted in its previous proposed rulemaking, ‘In the United States, gambling is overseen by state regulators with particular expertise and governed by state gaming laws aimed at addressing particular risks and concerns associated with gambling. The Commission is not a gaming regulator.’ Importantly, each state has their own rules. Some, like Nevada, require those who want to gamble on sports via an app to register in-person. Eight states, like Mississippi, only permit sports betting in-person at a casino. In Florida, a tribal government has the exclusive right to operate mobile sports betting. Importantly, in 11 states (including Texas and California), sports betting has not yet been legalized.

“Each state that legalizes sports betting includes a variety of requirements for consumer protections, responsible gaming, tax revenue, integrity safeguards, and anti-money laundering compliance. Authorizing sports contracts nationally via prediction markets would not include any of these important policy considerations.”

As Titus explains in the letter, she recommended as far back as last August — when the CFTC was under different leadership — that the commission host a forum with a variety of stakeholders on the issue of sports prediction markets.

On Jan. 27, the CFTC announced that Pham will indeed launch “a series of public roundtables on evolving trends and innovation in market structure,” and those are anticipated to begin in March or April.

“I commend the Commission,” Titus wrote at the conclusion of her letter, “for hosting a roundtable with a variety of experts and stakeholders. I hope that the roundtable includes representatives from regulated operators, integrity monitors, state regulators, sports leagues, and responsible gaming advocates. Before the Commission allows sports betting in all 50 states, I hope they listen to the feedback presented at the roundtable and consider the harm that contracts on sports events would have on the legal gaming ecosystem that provides tax revenue, responsible gaming resources, integrity monitoring, and consumer protection.”

They can bet on that?!

Aside from sports, Rep. Titus also pointed out in her letter that various prediction market operators, both those overseen by the CFTC and those not, have offered highly controversial wagering options on such topics as alleged vigilante Luigi Mangione’s fate, the spread of bird flu, and the damage caused by the recent California wildfires.

Meanwhile, other controversies and conflicts are brewing over the connections between the CFTC, the Trump administration, and Kalshi.

Shortly before Donald Trump took office for his second term as president, his son, Donald Trump Jr., was announced as an “advisor” to operator Kalshi. And on Feb. 12, President Trump nominated Brian Quintenz to replace acting chair Pham and become chairman of the CFTC, even though Quintenz is on the board of Kalshi.

How much sway Rep. Titus or any representatives of the regulated gaming industry hold under these circumstances is very much an open question.