The California Nations Indian Gaming Association urged Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, not to bring up the CLARITY Act on Tuesday unless the bill closes what the group calls a prediction-market loophole and preserves federal, state, and tribal gaming law. The request, made in a letter from CNIGA Chairman James Siva, lands days ahead of a scheduled Senate cloture vote, as tribal leaders nationally warn Congress that prediction markets are gambling by another name.
Siva’s letter argues that prediction-market operators are trying to use federal commodities law to offer nationwide gambling, sidestepping the framework Congress built through the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and decades of tribal-state compacts. CNIGA wants any digital-asset market-structure bill to explicitly bar designated commodity markets from listing event contracts tied to sports wagering, athletic competitions, player performance, or casino-style gaming – anything already regulated under federal, state, or tribal gaming law. The coalition is also asking lawmakers to preserve IGRA and existing compacts outright, and to shut off any route by which digital-asset or decentralized-finance provisions could function as a backdoor for nationwide mobile gambling, a concern that echoes broader friction between federal prediction-market activity and state gaming authority.
“Congress built a carefully negotiated federal, state, and tribal framework for gaming,” Siva said. “Prediction market companies want none of that. But just because you’re well-funded doesn’t mean the rules don’t apply.”
A 630-Page Bill and a Tight Vote Count
The Senate has scheduled a cloture vote on the 630-page CLARITY Act for Tuesday, a procedural step that requires 60 votes to overcome a filibuster and move to formal floor debate. Republicans hold 53 seats, meaning the bill needs bipartisan support from Democrats or independents to clear that threshold.
The legislation, which would establish a new regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May but stalled as leaders struggled to lock down the votes needed for passage. Senator Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, chair of the Senate Banking Electronic Assets Subcommittee, released a revised version of the bill Thursday. According to CNIGA, the biggest problem with that revision is what it doesn’t do: it expands the CFTC’s authority without drawing clear boundaries around tribal and state gaming law, an issue also raised by state gaming legislators pushing to keep prediction-market oversight at the state level.
Why Tribes Say the Stakes Go Beyond Wording
Siva was blunt about what he thinks is actually being sold: sports-event contracts are sports betting, he wrote, and calling them “prediction markets” or “event contracts” doesn’t change that in practice. He also drew a line between commercial gaming’s objections and the tribes’ stake in the outcome, describing tribal gaming as a core expression of self-governance and the funding source behind health care, education, housing, public safety, infrastructure, elder services, and cultural preservation programs.
Without that gaming revenue, Siva warned, many tribal nations would lack the resources to support their people and could once again become dependent on federal funds. That framing puts CNIGA’s ask squarely ahead of Tuesday’s cloture vote: proceed only if the bill closes the prediction-market loophole and locks in the gaming protections the letter demands, or don’t proceed at all.
The post Tribal Gaming Group Seeks Betting Safeguards in CLARITY Act appeared first on ReadWrite.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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