Monday, August 3rd 2026 - 00:21 UTCFull article
The question now before several United States appellate courts is not whether Americans may wager on sporting events. It is which government gets to say so.
On one side sits the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal derivatives regulator, and a handful of exchanges arguing that a contract on the outcome of a basketball game is a financial instrument under its exclusive jurisdiction. On the other sit state gaming regulators, tribal governments and more than two dozen state attorneys general, arguing that a bet remains a bet regardless of the paperwork wrapped around it.
The dispute has produced conflicting rulings across at least four federal circuits, and officials involved expect it to reach the Supreme Court.
The Contracts and the Claim
