- Pritzker’s agenda asks Congress to prohibit prediction markets and event contracts on sports, politics, current events and pop culture.
- It would give states exclusive regulatory authority over the contracts and bar the CFTC and other federal agencies from regulating them.
- Illinois is appealing a federal order that blocks it from enforcing its sports wagering license and tax on prediction market exchanges.
- The agenda also asks for permanent SAMHSA funding for problem gambling services and a single national gambling helpline.
CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is asking Congress to enact a nationwide prediction market ban, give states exclusive authority over event contracts and bar the Commodity Futures Trading Commission from regulating them, according to an agenda his office released Wednesday.
What The Gaming Section Asks Of Congress
Pritzker’s office released the Day One Agenda, which it describes as about 200 proposals for the newly elected Congress, at Columbus Park in Chicago. Pritzker had won a third term a day earlier, and NBC News has projected that Democrats will win control of the House.
On page 54 of the 75-page document, the Gaming section asks Congress to prohibit prediction markets and event contracts on sports, gambling, politics and elections, current events, pop culture and other non-traditional instruments. It also asks lawmakers to make clear that states have exclusive regulatory authority over them and to bar the CFTC and other federal agencies from regulating them.
The agenda describes the markets as operating in “a legal and financial gray area” that blurs the line between speculative gambling and financial derivatives. It says affirming state authority “would protect Illinois’ regulated gaming system and its consumers,” a system that includes the state’s licensed sportsbooks.
Where The Illinois Court Fight Stands
The request goes to the question at the center of the Kalshi Illinois injunction case: whether sports event contracts traded on federally registered exchanges are swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act or sports wagers Illinois can license and tax.
U.S. District Judge Martha Pacold found in an Oct. 2 opinion that the contracts are likely swaps. Her Oct. 30 order bars Illinois from enforcing its sports wagering license requirement, fees and taxes against the exchanges in consolidated suits brought by Kalshi, Coinbase and the CFTC. While the order stands, Illinois cannot require those exchanges to hold the license that legal sports betting operators carry in the state.
The tax, which lawmakers wrote into the Illinois 2027 budget, is 1.75% on each of a licensee’s first 5 million exchange wagers in a fiscal year and 3.5% above that count, according to a bulletin from the law firm Taft. Illinois officials have appealed the order to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Problem Gambling Funding And A National Helpline
The agenda’s second gaming request asks Congress to create permanent funding authority under the Public Health Service Act for grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, to states, tribes and tribal organizations for problem gambling prevention, screening, assessment, intervention and treatment.
The agenda says gambling disorder is the only recognized addiction with no federal agency responsible for funding, coordinating or overseeing services, and that Illinois carries the cost of those services largely alone.
It also asks Congress to designate and fund a single national gambling helpline with routing and answer-rate standards, or to fold gambling into the 988 network. The agenda notes that gambling now has two competing national helpline numbers.
