The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has sent two event-contract rulemakings to the White House for review, placing the regulatory treatment of prediction markets before the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
OIRA received the measures on Sept. 28 and listed both as pending review on Oct. 3. One is a proposed rule that would define swaps to include event contracts; the other is an interim final rule to exclude casino-style gambling products, according to the OIRA pending-review database.
Two CFTC event-contract rules enter OIRA review
The rulemakings were submitted under RIN 3038-AF82 for the proposed swaps-definition rule and RIN 3038-AF81 for the interim final gambling exclusion. Both remained under review as of Oct. 3, the White House records show.
OIRA review is a formal step in the federal rulemaking process, but the database entries do not establish a completion date or disclose the final text of either measure. The CFTC's paired filings nevertheless put the treatment of event-linked products into the White House review process at the same time.
The line between swaps and casino-style gambling
The two actions address opposite sides of the classification question. The proposed rule would bring event contracts within the definition of swaps, while the interim final rule would exclude products characterized as casino-style gambling.
That structure makes the boundary central to the CFTC's approach: whether a contract is treated as a federally regulated derivative or falls outside that framework as gambling. The OIRA listings identify the subjects of the rules but provide no further detail on how either standard would be applied.
Jurisdiction test for prediction markets
The paired rules could affect the legal boundary between federally regulated derivatives and state-regulated gambling, with direct consequences for prediction-market platforms offering contracts tied to sports and other events, The Block reported.
Both measures remain pending review at OIRA.
