\n Posted on: December 23, 2025, 12:18h.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
\n Last updated on: December 22, 2025, 05:21h.\n <\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n- \n
- Chris Christie has joined the fight against sports prediction markets<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Christie helped states win the right to legalize sports betting<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Christie and President Trump are not friends, which could hamper Christie\u2019s CFTC influence<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who championed the fight against the US federal government for states to possess the right to legalize sports betting, has a new target in sports prediction markets.<\/span><\/p>\n
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Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie opines that prediction markets licensed by the CFTC offering sports contracts are breaking the law. Christie recently partnered with the American Gaming Association to fight against predictive market exchanges facilitating events involving sports. (Image: CNBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Christie, a two-term Republican governor in the blue Garden State, helped lead New Jersey\u2019s legal challenge to the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). The federal law had restricted single-game sports gambling to Nevada.<\/span><\/p>\n
After years in court, the US Supreme Court in May 2018 ultimately sided with New Jersey in that PASPA violated anti-commandeering interpretations of the Tenth Amendment. The landmark ruling led to 40 states and Washington, DC, passing sports betting laws.<\/span><\/p>\n
Now, Christie is joining the American Gaming Association (AGA), a trade group representing the interests of the commercial and tribal gaming industries, to campaign against the continued rise of sports prediction markets.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
CNBC\u2019s <\/i>Contessa Brewer, who covers gaming matters for the business news outlet, broke the Christie news last Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n
Sports Prediction Markets<\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n
Prediction markets licensed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) claim to facilitate the buying and selling of binary markets and yes\/no contracts. Platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket initially focused on the outcome of real-world happenings and events, from the weather to politics, but more recently ventured into sports.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nState attorneys general, gaming regulators, and certain state lawmakers have said the sports prediction markets are nothing more than sports gambling, but Kalshi and the like do not hold sports betting licenses in states where they operate. They\u2019re even operating in states like California and Texas, where sports betting is illegal.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Several traditional sportsbook giants, including DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fanatics, recently withdrew their AGA memberships to pursue their own prediction markets. DraftKings Predictions and FanDuel Predicts launched over the past week<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n
The AGA is betting on Christie being able to change the narrative.<\/span><\/p>\n
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They are clearly illegal in the sports gaming space,\u201d Christie told Brewer. \u201cThe Supreme Court turned this [sports betting] over to the states. Regulation is very important,\u201d Christie said. \u201cThis is not compliant with the law.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The CFTC, which administers the Commodity Exchange Act, has allowed its Designated Contract Market (DCM) licensees to offer contracts on sporting outcomes. The CFTC, under the Trump administration, seems unlikely to force prediction markets to cease trading sports contracts. Even the president\u2019s family is prepping a prediction market entry<\/a> through its media group, and Donald Trump Jr. is a special advisor to Polymarket and Kalshi.<\/span><\/p>\n
The Commodity Exchange Act prohibits CFTC licensees from trading contracts involving \u201cgaming\u201d and events \u201ccontrary to the public interest\u201d like war, terrorism, and assassination.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\u201cJust because people brazenly break the law doesn\u2019t mean they should be permitted to do so,\u201d Christie said.<\/span><\/p>\n
Sports Integrity in Focus<\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n
Christie says, unlike legal, regulated sportsbooks, which report suspicious betting activity to state gaming regulators and sports leagues when wagering patterns suggest a game or player could be compromised, predictive markets are like the wild west, where no such monitoring is occurring.<\/span><\/p>\n
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- Christie helped states win the right to legalize sports betting<\/strong><\/li>\n