Gary’s Supreme Court Amicus Brief gives a firsthand account – from someone who was in the room as CFTC Chairman, that Congress - in Response to the 2008 Financial Crisis — did not make the CFTC the nation’s sports betting regulator.
In ‘Gensler to Supreme Court: “I Was There,” and Dodd-Frank Didn’t Make the CFTC a Sports Book’, John Lothian gives a review of Gary’s brief and the legal issues pitting New Jersey and 38 other states on one side vs. Kalshi and the CFTC on the other. (graphic above is from John Lothian news)
The case boils down to the question of what Congress did in 2010’s Dodd-Frank financial reform with regard to sports betting. The Third Circuit majority found that Congress included sports-betting contracts within the statutory definition of swaps and, as a result, displaced states’ traditional police power to regulate gaming, including sports betting. The Ninth and Sixth Circuits have come out the other way, as have many district courts.
Gary asks the Supreme Court to hear New Jersey’s appeal – and overturn -- the Third Circuit’s opinion which ruled in favor of Kalshi.
As Politico reported yesterday. ‘“Congress does not make fundamental changes in the balance of state and federal power in isolated snippets of text,” Gensler writes in his brief, ... “If Dodd-Frank had preempted the states and tribes on sports betting, it would have been one of the biggest stories about Dodd-Frank at the time. But nobody ever mentioned it.”’
CoinDesk reported on Gary’s amicus along with Senator Chris Dodd’s brief and the NFL’s, all which pushed back on the Third Circuits’ and Kalsi’s views.
You can also listen to Gary & Simon discuss Prediction Markets in ‘Episode Five: Prediction Markets’