Michael Selig, the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has fired a verbal salvo at New York Attorney General Letitia James as the CFTC’s predictions market dispute with the state continues to intensify.
The CFTC chief was speaking at White House yesterday ahead of the inaugural Washington meeting of the Innovation Advisory Committee on August 20, with President Donald Trump in attendance.
“We’ve […] protected federally regulated prediction markets from rogue state attorneys general, like Letitia James, who seeks to nullify federal law and drive these markets offshore to unregulated and foreign venues,” said Selig, in a speech he uploaded to X.
The battle for regulatory supremacy between the CTFC and the exchanges it polices, on the one hand, and the states, on the other, has stepped up a gear in recent days.
James has claimed that Kalshi has violated New York’s sports betting age-limit rules by allowing people aged 18-20 to trade sports-related contracts.
The state sued Kalshi for $36 billion.
Selig-James Standoff Intensifies
Selig was unflinching in his attack on the states and also took aim at financial providers, who have debanked crypto and prediction platforms in the past.
“The era of political lawfare, debanking, and regulation by enforcement is over,” he said. “Innovators […] are welcome to the White House, not railroaded to the bakehouse. And the new frontier of finance is being built right here in the United States of America.”
Selig’s comments come days after multiple reports claimed JPMorgan Chase decided to stop providing banking services to Polymarket last year, allegedly citing “regulatory concerns.”
Selig said the Trump White House had “defeated the anti-crypto army” and protected federally regulated prediction markets.
After speaking about prediction market operators, Selig claimed the US had entered a “golden age” of tech innovation.
The CFTC boss’ comments echoed sentiments he voiced earlier this month, when he complained that James and other state officials were trying to “make event contract derivatives waste away under [an] iron curtain of state gaming laws before the courts get the chance to issue final rulings.”
The commission said it was using emergency powers to block a NY temporary restraining order. The restraining order seeks to prohibit Kalshi from offering all event contracts nationwide.
“New York has no business regulating these interstate financial markets,” Selig said on August 11. “The commission is required by law to ensure order in these markets, and that is what we have done today.”
CFTC Intervention
The CFTC said its August 11 move would help “ensure market stability.”
But James looks unlikely to back down.
“No matter what they call themselves, prediction markets like Kalshi are gambling platforms, plain and simple,” James said on July 31. “By ignoring our laws, Kalshi is running an illegal operation and harming New Yorkers in the process. We are taking them to court to uphold our laws and protect New Yorkers.”
Selig immediately snapped back on X. He said: “Rather than seek reasoned answers from the courts, Letitia James and New York seek to force an unprecedented sudden shutdown of prediction markets nationwide.”
The Innovation Advisory Committee’s 35 members include the two biggest hitters in the prediction markets space: Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour and Shayne Coplan, the CEO of Polymarket.
Other major prediction market players are also listed among the members. These include the CEOs of Rothera Markets, Crypto.com, Coinbase, and Robinhood.
Other firms with newer prediction market arms will also be in attendance, including the betting operators FanDuel and DraftKings, as well as the financial provider Cboe Global Markets.
Selig has previously heralded the committee members, saying they are on the “frontier of finance.” He called the members a collective of “innovators, builders, thinkers, and entrepreneurs.”
Earlier this month, the prediction-market newcomer Novig filed lawsuits against New York and three other states.
Legal experts say the measure was pre-emptive. They say it was part of an effort to ensure states could not interrupt Novig’s first month of trading.
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Michael Selig, the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has fired a verbal salvo at New York Attorney General Letitia James as the CFTC’s predictions market dispute with the state continues to intensify. The CFTC chief was speaking at White House yesterday ahead of the inaugural Washington meeting of the Innovation Advisory Committee on
The post CFTC Chair Selig Takes Aim at ‘Rogue’ AG Letitia James as Prediction-Market Row Escalates appeared first on CasinoBeats.