September 3, 2025
| TO: Indian Gaming Association Member Tribes & Partners FROM: Ernest L. Stevens Jr., Chairman Jason Giles, Executive Director RE: ACTION NEEDED Urge Your Senators to Place a Hold on the Nomination of Brian Quintenz to Serve as Chairman of the CFTC Date: September 2, 2025 |
| As Congress returns from the August break on September 2, 2025, it is expected that the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry (“Committee”) will vote on the nomination of Brian Quintenz to serve as Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”). Quintenz likely has the votes to clear the Committee. However, we urge you to write your senators to request that they place a hold on this nomination to allow further deliberation and to force Mr. Quintenz to address the many concerns that have been raised by Tribal and state governments. (See Attached Letter Link Below) Under Senate procedures, once a presidential nomination clears a committee vote, the nomination is then placed on the Senate calendar for a vote before the full chamber. For an uncontroversial nominee, the Senate majority will seek “unanimous consent” to clear the nomination. However, for controversial nominees, an individual senator may object to the use of unanimous consent by placing a hold on the nomination. Holds can be placed by any senator for any reason, often used as a negotiating tool with the administration on policy matters for which they have been nominated. In response to Mr. Quintenz’s nomination hearing on June 12, 2025, IGA, NCAI, and the American Gaming Association (“AGA”), among other concerned entities, authored and circulated a letter to the Committee, raising their concerns surrounding Mr. Quintenz’s adequacy for the position. We now ask that our IGA members tribes contact their Senators and Committee members to urge them to object (also known as “placing a hold”) on Mr. Quintenz’s nomination until he has committed to initiating a CFTC review of sports-based event contracts if he is confirmed as CFTC Chair. Throughout his Nomination Hearing, Mr. Quintenz could not provide forthright answers to questions on his approach to events contracts/sports betting, including sports-based events contracts, which are of great concern to tribal gaming operations and are the subject of pending litigation in several federal court cases. In addition to his vague answers on CFTC’s inaction surrounding these events contracts, many tribal gaming operators are also concerned about Mr. Quintenz’s conflicts of interest in overseeing these matters. As we have reported in prior alerts, Mr. Quintenz is a former CFTC Commissioner and, more notably, a current board member of KalshiEX, LLC (“Kalshi”), one of the commercial online gaming operations engaged in sports-based event contracts. Concerned parties found that his testimony failed to instill confidence in his ability to maintain the CFTC’s impartiality in these matters. IGA has repeatedly noted that in late 2024, Kalshi and other CFTC-registered prediction platforms, began to offer sports-based event contracts. These contracts ultimately amount to sports-betting platforms in that they permit the buying and selling of predictions on the outcomes of sporting events. This raises significant public policy concerns as these companies are being permitted to bypass regulations that govern gaming on Indian lands and within state jurisdictions. States are additionally concerned that these actions evade state taxation. These sports betting contracts are being carried out in violation of the CFTC’s own regulations, which explicitly demand the CFTC review contracts that “involve, relate to, or reference” gaming as violations of public policy. Accordingly, many tribal nations, state attorneys general, regulatory agencies, and business entities raised concerns that these platforms violate both federal statutes, including the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (“IGRA”) and the Wire Act, as well as tribal and state gaming laws. Although it is the role of the CFTC to investigate such matters, the CFTC has yet to respond and has left the matter to the courts. It is important to underscore the CFTC’s ongoing failure to act in response to the sports-based event contracts and the gravity of Mr. Quintenz’s failure to commit to reviewing such contracts. Many find it troubling that, during his nomination hearing, Mr. Quintenz refused to assure the Committee that under his leadership the CFTC would enforce its own regulations. Even more troubling is the sentiment that Mr. Quintenz would follow his own interpretation of the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”). Further, when asked whether he would review events contracts to ensure that they comply with IGRA and principles of tribal sovereignty, he did not give a clear answer. Based on Mr. Quintenz’s testimony, unregulated sports betting will continue during his tenure, absent an explicit court mandate or an act of Congress. Given the pace of the ongoing litigation, this could mean that it may take months or years before these harmful gaming practices and infringement upon principles of tribal sovereignty are checked. Not only did Mr. Quintenz fail to adequately answer the questions on sports-based event contracts by Committee members, but IGA is concerned with the clear conflicts of interest stemming from Quintenz’ position on Kalshi’s board. Quintenz failed to address these concerns during his nomination hearing when asked about his ability to push back on pressures from other Kalshi. While Mr. Quintenz did say that he was willing to take all avenues to comply with applicable ethics protocols, including screening methods, in response to Senator Booker’s concerns regarding Kalshi’s indirect connections to the President, he explained that he would only “pledge to have a conversation” about the relationship to Kalshi and his objectivity. This conflict of interest is concerning to tribal gaming operators and regulators, especially in light of the CFTC’s current inaction on matters involving unauthorized sports betting. As noted above, the Senate Agriculture Committee will likely make a final decision on Mr. Quintenz’s nomination when it returns to session in September. We urge you to consider contacting your Senators to raise these concerns and ask that they place a hold on the Quintenz nomination until Mr. Quintenz commits to the investigation of sports-based events contracts. Attached is a draft letter to your senators for your consideration. Please contact Danielle Her Many Horses, dhermanyhorses@indiangaming.org , with any questions or concerns. Download DRAFT Letter Here |
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