Senators Adam Schiff and John Curtis introduced bipartisan legislation to prohibit CFTC-registered entities from listing prediction contracts related to sporting events. The bill also seeks to prohibit 'casino-style games' from being listed on these platforms.
Ban the listing of sports prediction market contracts and casino-style games by CFTC-registered entities through federal legislation.
Occurrences
The bicameral bill would ban betting through prediction markets on ... sports ... The STOP Corrupt Bets Act would: Explicitly prohibit event contracts on: ... Sports ... By preventing CFTC-regulated entities from listing or clearing these contracts—except in the narrow case of legitimate commercial hedging—the STOP Corrupt Bets Act would protect markets from manipulation and conflicts of interest.
Representative Jamie Raskin and Senator Jeff Merkley introduced the STOP Corrupt Bets Act to ban prediction market betting on elections, government actions, sports, and military actions.
Evidence
The Senate’s first bipartisan bill seeking to regulate prediction markets would prohibit CFTC-registered entities from listing prediction contracts that resemble a sports bet or casino-style game, including contracts related to sporting events and casino-style games such as slot machine games, video poker, blackjack and bingo.
Hickenlooper and Murphy introduced the BETS OFF Act, legislation to ban wagering on government actions, terrorism, war, assassination, and events where an individual knows or controls the outcome; the bill also amends illegal gambling laws to shut down payment systems to illegal online platforms and impose criminal penalties on operators.
GovInfo records S. 4160 as an introduced Senate bill, read twice and referred to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Its full title is to amend the Commodity Exchange Act to prohibit certain sports and casino-style event contracts.
The introduced text would add a Commodity Exchange Act subsection barring registered entities from listing, clearing, or trading contracts tied to sporting events, athletic competitions, or casino-style games.
Congress.gov lists H.R. 7477 as introduced by Rep. Dina Titus on February 10, 2026. Latest action: referred to the House Committee on Agriculture. Status: Introduced.
GovInfo records S. 4115 as introduced by Sen. Murphy for himself and Sen. Hickenlooper, then read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. The bill title is to ban certain types of wagers.
Hickenlooper's office described the BETS OFF Act as bicameral legislation to ban wagering on government actions, terrorism, war, assassination, and events where someone knows or controls the outcome.
Hickenlooper questioned witnesses about prediction markets, CFTC oversight, state gambling-rule circumvention, sports betting risks, and noted his BETS OFF Act and related CFTC letters.
Within the lookback window, CFTC proposed amendments for event-contract prediction markets and opened comments until July 27, 2026. The proposal says some sports contracts based on overall outcomes, final scores, point differentials, win-loss results, tournament advancement, statistics, or season-long metrics would weigh against finding them contrary to the public interest, while pre-collegiate sports and certain injury, officiating, discrete-action, or fight contracts would likely be barred.
CFTC said it filed suit against Kentucky to block state efforts to shut down CFTC-registered contract markets under state law, and stated it was committed to maintaining exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets.
GovInfo lists S. 4160 as introduced March 23, 2026, read twice, and referred to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. The title is to prohibit certain event contracts involving sports and casino-style games.
The introduced bill would amend the Commodity Exchange Act so that no contract relating to a sporting event, athletic competition, or casino-style game may be listed or made available for clearing or trading through a registered entity.
Congress.gov lists H.R. 7477 as introduced February 10, 2026, referred to House Agriculture, and still at the Introduced status. The official title would prohibit registered Commodity Exchange Act entities from transactions involving sporting event or casino-style gaming contracts.
Hickenlooper criticized prediction markets at a Senate hearing for bypassing state gambling rules, questioned witnesses on CFTC oversight, and said sports betting made up large portions of Polymarket and Kalshi activity. His office also noted his related BETS OFF Act and letters to CFTC.
Assessments
The promised outcome required enacted federal legislation banning CFTC-registered entities from listing sports prediction market contracts and casino-style games. The matching Senate and House bills were introduced and referred to committee, but neither passed or became law. Hickenlooper undertook same-term oversight and introduced adjacent prediction-market restrictions through the BETS OFF Act, but that bill did not cover the full sports/casino-style CFTC ban and also was not enacted. This is a serious but unsuccessful effort, not delivery.
The promised federal ban was not enacted. The matching sports/casino-style CFTC bill, S.4160, remained only introduced and referred, and the House counterpart H.R.7477 also remained introduced. Hickenlooper did cosponsor adjacent prediction-market legislation and pursued oversight/advocacy on related sports-betting and CFTC issues, which supports an effort badge, but those actions did not deliver the specific statutory prohibition.
The promised federal outcome was a statutory ban on sports prediction market contracts and casino-style games listed by CFTC-registered entities. The evidence shows such legislation was introduced in the Senate in March 2026, but not enacted, so the ban itself was not delivered. Hickenlooper also introduced related prediction-market legislation in the same term, but it targeted war, government actions, terrorism, assassination, and manipulable events rather than the specific sports/casino-style CFTC contract ban. That supports credit for a serious adjacent legislative effort, not fulfillment of the promised outcome.