As state and federal regulators continue to clash over who should oversee sports-related prediction markets, lawmakers in Washington are considering whether Congress should step in.
During a House Agriculture Committee digital assets subcommittee hearing Tuesday on sports betting through prediction markets, lawmakers questioned whether existing laws and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's resources are adequate to oversee the rapidly growing sector.
Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., said derivative products have changed dramatically over the past few decades.
"As with many emerging technologies, our laws are being asked to answer questions that we had never really contemplated when we wrote the laws years ago," Johnson said in his opening remarks.
Over the past year, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael Selig has taken an aggressive stance that his agency should regulate sports betting on prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket, in part through bringing lawsuits against several states.
