The American Gaming Association (AGA), a trade group protecting the interests of gambling stakeholders in the United States, has highlighted a new story run by Sportico in which the organization explained the steps it had taken to enact the arrival of unchecked sports event futures trading that is threatening the regulated industry.

AGA goes after sports event future contracts

The trade group highlighted an article covered by Dan Bernstein who cited a copy of an AGA memo sent to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

In the memo, the trade group is asking the CFTC and the regulator’s Acting Chair, Caroline Pham, to be allowed to attend the regulator’s high-stakes roundtable that will take place in Washington D.C. in March and that could help establish some ground rules around sports event futures trading.

In its latter, AGA SVP of Government Relations Chris Cylke had this to say:

"We believe these sports event contracts are problematic for a variety of public policy reasons, which we highlight briefly and would welcome the opportunity to discuss in more detail during the roundtable."

AGA has expressed concern that platforms such as Kalshi, and Crypto.com, which offer such markets, could be seen as an "unfair economic threat," even though these platforms have vehemently objected that their platforms are independent from the odds-makers in the sense that they do not set any coefficients themselves.

Fellow industry members from the sports betting sector are also keen to attend the meeting so that they can garner further insight and direction as to what is coming next when it comes to sports futures trading. Some even argue that the sector mimics sports betting too closely and poses a threat. AGA is not the only one to call out such contracts.

AGA is fighting a similar fight against the social sweepstakes casino sector, with the trade group and its members calling for a new, more restrictive approach to such platforms that have been accused of offering unlicensed forms of gambling.

Tribal interests are threatened, but an endorsement of these platforms mounts

Sweepstake operators have struck back, arguing that their industry was established in legal and historical precedent and disagreed with AGA’s antagonizing view. AGA, though, is pushing on both fronts. The trade group is arguing that future sports event contracts are undermining industry and tribal gaming in particular.

Congresswoman Dina Titus has similarly shared her opposition in a social media post:

"It is a backdoor way to allow sports betting in 50 states, ignoring consumer protections, responsible gaming, integrity monitoring and state tax revenue rules and regulations."

She has also written to the CFTC to oppose the new prediction market wave and raise concern over these platforms and the products they offer. The opposition against these prediction markets is coming at a time when many have shown support for the sector.

Besides Kalshi, Coinbase and Robinhood chief executives have said that sports event futures are here to stay.

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