Native American gaming leaders are intensifying their resistance to what they perceive as a growing wave of unlicensed online operators. During the United Indian Nations of Oklahoma (UINO) Annual Meeting last week in Oklahoma City, tribal representatives and industry leaders from across the USA pledged to defend tribal sovereignty and the integrity of regulated gambling markets, voicing a unified stance against online sweepstakes casinos and prediction platforms.
The IGA Is Ready to Seek Its Rights in Court
The Indian Gaming Association (IGA) and the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association (OIGA) spearheaded a panel focused on what they described as a coordinated assault on legal gaming. IGA Chairman David Z. Bean, executive director Jason Giles, and OIGA executive director Matthew Morgan, along with a dozen tribal leaders, presented a national strategy to address emerging challenges.
Tribal leaders emphasized the persistent risks posed by offshore operators that do not pay taxes, contribute nothing to local communities, and circumvent consumer protections. However, services such as prediction markets and sweepstakes took center stage as new threats that represent an immediate challenge to tribal economies and their regulatory authority.
Sweepstakes and the effort by the CFTC to classify sports gambling as a commodity go against the legal and regulated framework that tribal nations have established.
David Z. Bean, IGA Chairman
The IGA confirmed that it is preparing legal filings and amicus briefs to challenge both sweepstakes casinos and prediction markets. Online platforms such as Kalshi, which allow users to wager on political, cultural, and sports events under the guise of trading “event contracts,” have already found themselves embroiled in several legal challenges.
Tribes See Recent Trends as Highly Troubling
Tensions have risen after a federal court in California recently denied three tribes’ request for an injunction to halt Kalshi’s operations. The ruling by Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley stated that the tribes had not sufficiently linked their claims under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) to Kalshi’s activity taking place on tribal territory.
Despite this legal setback, tribal leaders noted that their resolve remains unshaken. IGA representatives urged tribes to present a united front against what they see as an attempt to undermine thirty years of efforts to gain trust and reinforce legitimacy. With individual states also cracking down on prediction markets and sweepstakes, the future of US gambling is more uncertain than ever.
Tribal gaming is lawful and regulated under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. We will not permit unregulated platforms to redefine gaming in the United States.
David Z. Bean, IGA Chairman
According to the IGA, its next step will be to rally tribes nationwide to coordinate lawsuits, raise awareness in Congress, and pressure federal agencies to act. The organization noted that, unlike pr ediction markets, which contribute nothing to society, tribal gaming operations underpin a vibrant local economy and provide a lifeline for tribal communities.