CFTC sues Wisconsin escalating federal-state clash over prediction market oversight
The CFTC is suing Wisconsin officials, asserting exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets and challenging state attempts to regulate them.Summary
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a lawsuit against Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers and other state officials, escalating a federal-state conflict over the oversight of prediction markets. This action follows Wisconsin's recent lawsuits against several prediction market platforms, including Coinbase, Robinhood, Crypto.com, Polymarket, and Kalshi, which the state characterized as a "public nuisance" due to their sports-related event contracts. The CFTC argues that Wisconsin's attempts to regulate these markets infringe upon the "exclusive jurisdiction" granted to the federal agency by Congress for overseeing national swaps markets. This marks the fifth state the CFTC has sued in the past month to assert its authority over prediction markets, which have seen a surge in popularity. The CFTC is seeking an injunction to prevent Wisconsin from enforcing its gambling and betting bans or regulations on event contract swaps traded on CFTC-regulated platforms, asserting that federal law preempts state law in this area.
(Source：The Block)