Congress Introduces Bill To Ban Sports Betting At Prediction Markets
Jesse M. Cox Published 26/03/2026
A bipartisan effort put forth by two U.S. Senators are seeking to get Congress to pass a law prohibiting prediction sites from offering event contracts on sports.
Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, and Sen. John Curtis, a Republican from Utah, has teamed up to introduce The Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act, a bill that would prevent major prediction market sites such as Kalshi and Polymarket from offering any type of event contract related to sports. The Senators argue that these sports-related event contracts are nothing more than sports betting in disguise, and therefore should be regulated in a similar manner to sports betting.
“It’s time for Congress to step in and eliminate this backdoor, which violates state consumer protections, intrudes upon tribal sovereignty and offers no public revenue,” Schiff said, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal.
While legal sports betting sites in the U.S. market are regulated by state governing bodies, prediction markets fall under the federal jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. These sites are basically using that loophole to offer what is essentially sports betting while not facing the same jurisdiction of the sports betting sites.
Sen. Schiff believes that it’s time for this end run on the law to be brought to a halt.
“The CFTC is greenlighting these markets and even promoting their growth,” Schiff said.
This is the first attempt by Congress to establish some sort of regulations for prediction market sites. As a federally-regulated entity, prediction markets can operate in all 50 states. Sports betting sites are restricted to the states in which legal and regulated sports betting is offered, and in which the site holds a state operating license.
“Sports prediction contracts are sports bets — just with a different name,” Schiff said in a statement while announcing the bill’s introduction. “These contracts are currently offered in all 50 states in clear violation of state and federal law.”
Sportsbooks have entered the prediction market game
It will be intriguing to see what type of progress this bill can achieve in Congress. Operating as derivative exchanges, prediction market sites offer event contracts in which you can back a yes or no outcome.
“The Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act is about respecting states’ authority, protecting families, and keeping speculative financial products out of spaces where they don’t belong,” Sen. Curtis said in a statement.
Several of the top U.S. sports betting sites, including DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fanatics, have entered into the prediction market business, offering event contracts through standalone sites that remain separate from their online sportsbooks.
Donald Trump Jr., son of the U.S. President, is an investor in Polymarket and serves as a strategic advisor to Kalshi.
Just last month, the federal government came out strongly in support of the prediction market sites.
"The CFTC will no longer sit idly by while overzealous state governments undermine the agency's exclusive jurisdiction over these markets by seeking to establish statewide prohibitions on these exciting products," CFTC chairman Michael Selig wrote in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.
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