Five Tribes demand federal guardrails on prediction markets

The Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes (ITC) has adopted a resolution calling on Congress and federal regulators to protect tribal sovereignty from prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket, which the council says have expanded rapidly without regard for existing gaming compacts.

The measure was one of several the council approved during its general session that placed gaming alongside agricultural policy, federal contracting and tribal transportation funding on its list of priorities.

Sovereignty as the throughline

Tribal sovereignty runs through each of the resolutions the ITC passed. The council’s gaming measure asks Congress and federal regulators to require prediction markets and event contracts to comply with existing tribal, federal and state gaming laws so that platforms operating outside those laws do not undermine tribal-state gaming compacts.

Kalshi and Polymarket have built large user bases and become prominent advertisers in recent years, and the ITC contends the platforms have taken advantage of gaps in current regulation to do so.

“Predictive markets undermine tribal sovereignty and the long-standing tribal gaming compacts and laws that have governed tribal gaming for decades,” said Choctaw Chief Gary Batton in a statement.

“These markets are rapidly expanding, and regulators and lawmakers must close the legal loopholes that allow them to operate outside established gaming laws and ensure tribes have a seat at the table as these issues are debated and resolved,” he added.

That same principle of self-governance carried into the council’s tribute to Chickasaw Nation Governor Emeritus Bill Anoatubby, honored during the general session for his years of service with the ITC.

Leaders credited his work negotiating gaming compacts and his part in Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act rulemaking with establishing how sovereignty operates today, giving the council a historical anchor for its current push on prediction markets.

Sovereignty extends to agriculture and federal funding

The council applied the same lens to its farm bill resolution, urging the US Senate Agriculture Committee to incorporate tribal priorities into the Agricultural Act of 2026.

The ITC is seeking provisions on food sovereignty, expanded access to USDA programs and support for tribal self-governance — priorities the council tied to Native producers’ ability to set their own agricultural policy rather than operate under terms set elsewhere.

Federal funding and contracting authority also featured in the remaining resolutions. The council also endorsed Mark Cruz’s nomination to serve as director of the Indian Health Service and issued a proclamation recognizing the National Day of Prayer.

The ITC’s next general session will take place October 7-9, 2026, hosted by the Choctaw Nation