August 25, 2025
| TO: Indian Gaming Association Member Tribes FROM: Ernest L. Stevens Jr., Chairman Jason Giles, Executive Director RE: ACTION NEEDED! TWO NEW LAWSUITS FILED. NEED AMICUS SUPPORT Date: August 29, 2025 |
| The litigation effort to stem the expansion of sports-related event contracts is ongoing. We are grateful to the tribes and intertribal organizations that joined the June amicus brief. The number of active cases where additional tribal amicus briefs would be helpful to halt the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from allowing self-certified, sports-related event contracts to be traded is growing. · KalshiEX, LLC v. John Martin (Fourth Circuit) · North American Derivatives Exchange, Inc., et al. v. State of Nevada (Nevada) · KalshiEX, LLC v. Hendrick, et al. (Nevada) · Robinhood Derivatives LLC v. Dreitzer (Nevada) · Robinhood Derivatives LLC v. Flaherty (New Jersey) The courts have issued extension in all three cases. The updated due dates for amicus briefs are below: · Robinhood (D. NV) –September 9 · Crypto.com – September 15 · Kalshi (D. NV) – September 29 · Kalshi (Fourth Circuit) – November 21 Unless there is action, the volume of sports-based event contracts traded on derivatives/futures markets is expected to grow—raising significant concerns for tribal gaming operators and regulators nationwide. It is crucial for Tribal governments to closely follow developments at the CFTC and in the courts. By allowing event contracts that are wholly unrelated to commodities, the CFTC risks making policy decisions that overlook the well-documented harms of sports betting—harms that every State and Tribal government has a sovereign duty to evaluate. In addition, each sports event contract traded on tribal lands, or in violation of a Tribal-State compact, deprives tribes and states of revenue our communities rely upon. Please ask your Tribe to sign-on to all the amicus briefs. They are substantially similar to the amicus brief IGA, NCAI and several tribes filed in June. It has been updated to reflect the analysis of the judge in the Maryland case and the evolving arguments put forth by Kalshi and Crypto.com. Please forward your Legal Counsel’s Name and State Bar Admission to Danielle Her Many Horses, dhermanyhorses@indiangaming.org , as soon as possible but no later than September 7. |
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