Schiff, Curtis Bill Bans Sports Bets on Kalshi, Polymarket
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- Sens. Adam Schiff and John Curtis introduced bipartisan legislation on March 23, 2026, banning sports betting on CFTC-regulated prediction markets including Kalshi and Polymarket
- The bill seeks to prevent CFTC-regulated entities from offering wagers on sports, targeting the regulatory gray zone where event-contract platforms have begun competing with traditional sportsbooks
- DraftKings stock jumped on the news, per Barron's headline, as a potential sports-betting ban was framed as bullish for the incumbent sportsbook operator
- Polymarket is rushing out new insider trading rules, per Benzinga, while a political risk analyst quoted in the same piece called prediction markets "more dangerous than social media"
- Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour pushed back on X, calling the bill "casino lobby hard at work" that protects "monopolies" by pushing activity offshore, and commentator Adam Cochran questioned why the bill doesn't target DraftKings-style apps that can "front run customers and set their own odds"
- Coverage spanned WSJ, NBC News, Forbes, TechCrunch, Decrypt, ZeroHedge, and Crypto Briefing, signaling the story's reach across crypto, gambling, finance, and tech-policy desks
Why it matters: Bipartisan sponsorship (Schiff-D, Curtis-R) gives the bill unusual political traction, and Barron's headline shows DraftKings — a potential beneficiary of the ban — already rallied on the news, sharpening the critics' argument that the casino lobby is shielding incumbents. Kalshi and Polymarket face a structurally harder fight than a partisan fight would imply, since their CFTC-regulated status makes them uniquely exposed to this specific legislative vehicle.
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