SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA — The Indian Gaming Association called on Congress to clamp down on prediction market platforms and announced a legal defense fund to support actions against those platforms at its annual convention in San Diego. Tribal leaders at the convention discussed the growth of platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi and the potential threat to tribes' place in the American gambling industry.

David Bean, Chairman of the Indian Gaming Association, accused prediction markets of misrepresenting their products to sidestep a framework of federal, state and tribal laws. "This is no innovation. This is unlawful gambling dressed up as finance," Bean said.

Prediction markets allow users to wager on the outcome of virtually any event, from the NCAA tournament to the war in Iran. Market operators say their customers trade by buying and selling "event contracts" and argue their product is distinct and should be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, like crop or oil markets. Kalshi, Polymarket and Robinhood say their users are engaging in futures trading, not gambling, and the platforms dispute claims that they are circumventing regulation. The CFTC is considering new rules for prediction markets.

More than a dozen U.S. states and four tribal nations have filed lawsuits against prediction market platforms. Four tribal nations sued Kalshi and Robinhood in federal court, accusing the platforms of violating federal law and state-tribal compacts. In their court filings, Kalshi and Robinhood say they are operating financial markets, not casinos or sportsbooks, and are not doing business on tribal lands.

The association has filed briefs in support of those lawsuits and is marshaling resources for a potential legal fight. It said studies of the financial impact of prediction markets are underway. The Trump administration has backed prediction market platforms. "We're seeing some hesitancy from lawmakers who don't want to upset the big boss," Bean said.

Jonodev Chaudhuri, former Chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission, said prediction markets have arrived on the online gaming market with minimal oversight. "There's an intensity in the discussions that is more pointed than I've seen perhaps ever in these rooms," Chaudhuri said.

Tribal gambling enterprises generated nearly $44 billion in 2024, a record, according to the National Indian Gaming Commission. That revenue funds healthcare, housing, education and other social services in Native American communities. Many tribal casinos, particularly those in rural areas, generate enough revenue only to pay for basic government operations and social services. Fewer than half of the nation's 576 federally recognized tribes offer some form of gambling.

Jon Greendeer, President of the Ho-Chunk Nation — one of 11 federally recognized tribes with exclusive gambling rights under a compact with Wisconsin — said: "We're taking on somebody who makes more money on one event than we do in an entire year."