Gambling Is Not Investing Coalition Launches Anti-Prediction Market Crusade

Rep. Mick Mulvaney, who is a well-seasoned political veteran and an experienced gambler, has launched the Gambling Is Not Investing coalition designed to take on the advance of prediction markets in the United States.

As the name of the project suggests, the former Trump chief of staff is not too excited about what prediction markets have to offer, and how they offer it. In an interview with The Wire, Mulvaney explained that he was an avid poker player, and he could recognize gambling for what it is.

Prediction markets, he argued, are offering illegal gambling, which is going to be what the new coalition launched on Monday is going to try to prove to legislators.

Mulvaney Argues that Prediction Markets are Bypassing Gambling Law

According to the coalition and Mulvaney, prediction markets are already bypassing gambling regulations and consumer protections to turn a profit.

Mulvaney said that any products that qualify as gambling – no matter what designation a company may give them – must always follow strict laws, and added:

“Rebranding sports wagering as ‘trading‘ or ‘investing‘ or ‘predicting’ misleads consumers, undermines responsible gaming protections, and weakens the state and tribal systems built to protect the public and fund vital community services.”

Rep Rick Mulvaney

But it is not that easy. Local gambling regulators have seen prediction markets as a threat to their local economies, not adhering to consumer protection measures, and spreading gambling-like products at a rapid pace.

Prediction Markets Push Back, Citing CFTC Oversight

However, prediction markets have denied that their event contracts constitute actual gambling, citing regulation under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Right now, the CFTC is also debating how to best regulate these platforms, and potentially even outright limit individual states’ ability to intervene on a regulatory level.

“To those who seek to challenge our authority in this space, let me be clear: We will see you in court,” newly appointed CFTC Chair Mike Selig recently said in a testy X social media post.

However, hardline Republicans have not been happy with the saber-rattling. Utah’s governor, Spencer Cox, said that prediction markets are “gambling pure and simple,” and that he, too, was keen to settle matters in a court of law.