Utahns have been crystal clear: gambling has no place in your state. Yet so-called “prediction market” platforms have engineered a backdoor into your communities. By rebranding sports bets as “event contracts” and “derivatives,” these platforms are mass-marketing sports betting as investing while claiming they are not subject to the laws and oversight that reflect Utah’s values.
Utahns know a sports bet when they see one. In fact, 79% of Utah voters say wagers offered by companies such as Kalshi and Polymarket are gambling — not investing. But what voters and policymakers may not realize is the quickly snowballing cost of this marketing deception: since 2025, “prediction markets” have already siphoned an estimated $1 billion in potential state gaming tax revenue across America. In Utah, the concern is just as significant: consumer dollars are flowing to companies offering products that are illegal in Utah, diverting spending from local businesses, while undermining your state’s decision to prohibit gambling.
In 2018, the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). This action gave states the authority to decide whether to legalize sports betting. Since then, 40 jurisdictions have done so and built sophisticated systems overseen by more than 8,400 regulators nationwide. Utah has intentionally taken a different path, choosing not to legalize sports betting — and now you are exposed to a product that’s never been allowed within your state’s borders.
These platforms are making a mockery of Congressional intent — and your state’s choices — by seeking CFTC oversight and bypassing federal and Utah law.
In a recent Senate Commerce Subcommittee hearing, a representative for the prediction markets industry made clear that they have no intention of abiding by state and tribal gaming laws. Yet Utah Sen. John Curtis remarked that if he were to talk with his constituents about prediction markets, you would likely respond with, “Tell me, how that is not gambling? It seems to me every definition of gambling.”
Prediction markets claim they are offering financial derivatives — instead of a sports wager — and should fall under the regulatory oversight of the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC), the agency that regulates markets critical to our nation’s economy. Utah businesses have long used legitimate commodities markets to hedge real economic risk like fluctuations in agriculture or oil prices. That is fundamentally different from a sports bet.
In a 2024 federal court filing, Kalshi — a “prediction market” operator whose volume consists of nearly 90% sports — admitted that Congress “did not want sports betting to be conducted on derivatives markets.” Now, prediction markets are offering exactly what they previously said they shouldn’t — even marketing it as “sports betting legal in all 50 states.” Just this year, media publication Sportico has noted that Kalshi also classified itself as “gambling” in their federal trademark request.
These platforms are making a mockery of Congressional intent — and your state’s choices — by seeking CFTC oversight and bypassing federal and Utah law. When the argument was made at the Senate hearing, senators from both parties scoffed, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who stated that “many simply see prediction markets as a workaround to state gambling laws.”
For decades, Congress and the courts have affirmed that gaming regulation belongs to states and tribal governments.
Earlier this year, 41 state attorneys general, including Utah Attorney General Derek Brown, sent a letter to the CFTC underscoring that “sports event contracts” are sports betting and states have the right to oversee their own gaming industries according to local laws and values. Gov. Spencer Cox has been outspoken on the issue stating that prediction markets are gambling and have “no place in Utah.” He directly challenged the CFTC stating he plans to use “every resource within my disposal as governor of the sovereign state of Utah” to beat them in court.
This “prediction market” regulatory evasion is a double burden for Utah’s taxpayers: not only are dollars flowing out of the state that could otherwise support Utah’s economy, but the state is also spending additional resources defending their sovereignty in court. The problem — and the cost — will amplify if this is allowed to continue.
The legal gaming industry treats sports betting as strictly a form of entertainment. Framing it otherwise is misleading and irresponsible, particularly as prediction markets heavily advertise to students and 18-year-olds. We agree with Rick Wurster, the CEO of brokerage firm Charles Schwab, who said he does not “want young people in our country to think gambling on the Monday Night Football game is the same as investing in stocks and bonds.”
Licensed operators must meet strict standards for integrity monitoring, taxation, oversight and consumer protections. “Prediction markets” bypass these entirely and you are thrown into the “wild west” without the proper protections or oversight that exists in the legal, state- and tribal-regulated markets.
For decades, Congress and the courts have affirmed that gaming regulation belongs to states and tribal governments. We agree — along with the 41 attorneys general and countless legislators across the country — and support Brown in calling “sports event contracts” what they are: sports bets. We continue to urge Congress to reaffirm existing law and state and tribal authority by advancing solutions like the bipartisan Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act.
You, as a Utahn, have made a deliberate choice not to legalize sports betting. Your state’s decision should be respected. If it’s a wager on sports, it should not be offered in Utah. To protect consumers and states’ rights, the federal government must stop this prediction market evasion of state and tribal law.