---
type: source
title: "Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act (Curtis-Schiff) — Competing Legislative Approach to Prediction Market Regulation"
author: "National Law Review"
url: https://natlawreview.com/article/update-prediction-markets
date: 2026-03-23
domain: internet-finance
secondary_domains: []
format: article
status: processed
processed_by: rio
processed_date: 2026-05-09
priority: medium
tags: [prediction-markets, legislation, cftc, event-contracts, regulatory, gambling, sports-betting, curtis-schiff]
intake_tier: research-task
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

The Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act, introduced by Senators Curtis and Schiff on March 23, 2026, would "amend federal law so that sports and casino-style event contracts may not be offered on platforms regulated by the commission [CFTC]."

This directly opposes the McCormick-Gillibrand Prediction Market Act 2026, which takes a "regulate, don't prohibit" approach. Two competing legislative philosophies:

1. **McCormick-Gillibrand (S.4469, April 30, 2026):** Establish CFTC regulatory framework for prediction markets. Define event contracts (DCM/SEF-listed), require CFTC oversight, ban politician trading, require age verification.

2. **Curtis-Schiff (March 23, 2026):** Prohibit sports and casino-style event contracts on CFTC-regulated platforms entirely.

Neither bill has been enacted. Legislative path uncertain.

Political context: Senate unanimously passed S.Res.708 restricting congressional trading on prediction markets — bipartisan appetite exists for SOME action. The form is contested.

## Agent Notes
**Why this matters:** The two competing bills show that Congress has not settled on whether prediction markets should be regulated or prohibited. This legislative uncertainty is itself a risk factor for the MetaDAO ecosystem — if the prohibitionist approach prevails, it could create regulatory pressure to expand prohibition beyond DCM-listed sports contracts.

**What surprised me:** The Curtis-Schiff bill specifically targets "sports and casino-style" contracts — which does NOT include governance markets or futarchy-style decision markets. The definitional boundary between "sports/casino event contracts" and "governance decision markets" is the same boundary that protects MetaDAO in the litigation context.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Any explicit reference to DAO governance markets or on-chain prediction markets in either bill. The legislative debate is entirely focused on sports/politics/casino contracts on Kalshi/Polymarket-style platforms.

**KB connections:**
- [[Legacy ICOs failed because team treasury control created extraction incentives that scaled with success]] — this is the structural failure the McCormick-Gillibrand bill is trying to prevent through CFTC oversight
- [[futarchy-based fundraising creates regulatory separation because there are no beneficial owners and investment decisions emerge from market forces not centralized control]] — neither bill directly addresses futarchy-based fundraising

**Extraction hints:** Primary claim: "The 119th Congress produced two competing legislative approaches to prediction market regulation — a regulatory framework (McCormick-Gillibrand) and a prohibition approach (Curtis-Schiff) — with neither addressing decentralized governance markets like MetaDAO's futarchy conditional markets." This captures the legislative gap and sets up the claim about regulatory invisibility.

**Context:** The National Law Review article covers the broader prediction market regulatory update including state-federal litigation, CFTC ANPRM, and both legislative approaches.

## Curator Notes
PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[MetaDAO conditional governance markets may fall outside CFTC event contract definition because TWAP settlement against internal token price is endogenous not an external observable event]]
WHY ARCHIVED: The competing legislative approaches — with neither addressing governance markets — extend the regulatory invisibility pattern to the legislative branch. 40 sessions of research, now confirmed in all three branches (courts, regulatory agencies, Congress).
EXTRACTION HINT: Extract the claim about dual legislative approaches and their shared omission of governance markets. Scope: legislative branch only; courts and CFTC are separate tracks.
