The exclusion rule takes effect immediately upon Federal Register publication, with a 30-day comment period, while the event-contract inclusion is only a proposal subject to 30 days of comments after publication. Chairman Michael Selig framed event contracts as commodity derivatives squarely within the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction, saying casino-style gambling products are not derivatives and sit outside the swap definition. The agency issued the rules amid conflicting appeals court decisions: the Sixth and Ninth Circuits let Ohio, Tennessee and Nevada enforce gambling laws against Kalshi, while the Third Circuit protected Kalshi in New Jersey, and the NFL has backed New Jersey’s request for Supreme Court review.
CFTC draws a swap line: event contracts in, casino wagers out
The CFTC on October 9 issued an interim final rule excluding casino-style gambling products from the legal definition of a swap while proposing that sports, politics, culture and weather event contracts be explicitly included, in its latest move in the court fight with states over prediction markets.
Why it matters: The two-rule pairing targets the federal circuit split over Kalshi's sports contracts, drawing a regulatory boundary the agency hopes will let prediction markets sit under exclusive federal jurisdiction while leaving state-regulated sportsbooks alone.
Data as of crypto.news and cryptowatchdaily.com reporting October 9, 2026 (articles opened and read in full); CFTC rule document URL confirmed live but its download was blocked to the page fetcher by a human-verification challenge. The rule pairing and court-split context corroborated across outlets.
Sources
- Interim Final Rule: Further Definition of 'Swap' to Exclude Casino-Style Gambling Products · Commodity Futures Trading Commission · 2026-10-09
- CFTC proposes classifying sports event contracts as swaps · crypto.news · 2026-10-09
- CFTC event contracts rule: swaps definition redrawn · cryptowatchdaily.com · 2026-10-09