Oklahoma sports betting remains illegal, but tribal gaming leaders are warning that prediction markets present a new threat to tribal sovereignty and could circumvent federal laws governing gambling in Indian Country.
Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association Chairman Matthew Morgan, raised the issue during an Aug. 27 meeting of the United Indian Nations of Oklahoma. Representatives from 20 tribes gathered to discuss gaming and other policy issues, according to local media.
“They look at tribes and tribal gaming and they think we’re standing in their way,” Morgan said. “And so they’ve decided to use their political muscle in order to try to shove us out of the way. They’re going to disregard precedent that has been set for decades on how these things are handled and just say, ‘We don’t need your permission.’”
Morgan backed legislation earlier this year that would have authorized tribal sports betting in Oklahoma. The bill failed by a 27-21 vote in the Senate in April.
Prediction markets under tribal scrutiny
Morgan argued platforms such as Kalshi conflict with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the 1988 federal law governing gaming on tribal lands.
Three California tribes and four New Mexico tribes have sued Kalshi, arguing its sports event contracts constitute gambling conducted on their reservations without complying with IGRA. Kalshi maintains its contracts are federally regulated financial instruments rather than state- or tribal-regulated gambling.
“Enter this white-collar activity disguised or described as swaps or trading of financial instruments on sports, betting on sports activities, sports events, when in fact, it is gambling,” Indian Gaming Association Chairman David Bean added.
Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Gentner Drummond joined more than 40 attorneys general in a May filing with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission arguing that Kalshi’s sports contracts are “unequivocally gambling.”
Morgan: tribes ‘have to be at the table’
Tribal leaders are also opposing federal legislation that they fear could strengthen CFTC authority over prediction markets.
Bean said the Indian Gaming Association is fighting the CLARITY Act, which passed the House last year and awaits Senate consideration.
Morgan urged tribes to remain involved in both Congress and the courts.
“If we’re not there to stop it, I don’t think we can expect anybody else to get up there and do it. We have to be at the table,” Morgan said. “We have to be in the courtroom. We have to be there to make sure our voices are heard.”
