Kentucky targets prediction markets, puts red state in potential clash with Trump team

So far, the states that have filed such a challenge against the prediction markets have met with counter suits from the CFTC, where Chairman Mike Selig has taken an aggressive legal stance defending his agency’s authority as the sole regulatory power over events contracts, which he says falls directly into the CFTC’s authority over U.S. derivatives.

And Trump has recently backed him up.

“It is critically important that the CFTC’s exclusive authority over Prediction Markets is maintained, and that they will thrive,” Trump posted on his social media site, Truth Social. “Under my leadership, we are setting ‘rules of the road’ that are the Gold Standard for the States.”

He asserted that his state-level political foes (offering names including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker) are “SCUM” who shouldn’t be allowed to set the rules.

“It is a major Industry, and we must protect it,” Trump wrote. “Mike Selig, CFTC Chairman, and respected by all, is doing a great job.”

The CFTC has sued eight states — most recently New Mexico — and leapt into other court matters involving the sector.

But the position staked out by Selig, who leads the CFTC as the sole current member of what’s meant to be a five-member commission, has detractors. Trump’s own former chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, is executive director of Gambling Is Not Investing, a group opposing the prediction market surge as an inappropriate end-run around state laws.