Massachusetts regulator fields prediction-market complaints it cannot resolve

Massachusetts’s gambling regulator is receiving a steady flow of requests from people seeking help with prediction-market platforms it does not oversee, highlighting the consumer confusion created by separate federal and state rules for sports-related contracts.

Jordan Maynard, chair of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, told a House subcommittee on Nov. 11 that consumers regularly contact the agency believing it regulates sports prediction markets. They seek clarification of rules, consumer-protection relief and responsible-gaming assistance, but the commission directs them to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees the exchanges.

Casino.org reported that the commission had been inundated with such requests, including disputes involving platforms that have never obtained a Massachusetts sports-betting licence. Maynard’s written testimony did not put a number on the inquiries, identify the operators involved or detail outcomes in individual cases. It also did not establish how many requests concerned financial disputes.

Maynard said the split has left consumers confronting “basically two sets of standards.” Sports prediction contracts can look virtually identical to bets sold by licensed sportsbooks, he said, while state regulators oversee sports betting and the federal government oversees prediction markets. His testimony argued that the CFTC does not offer the same consumer protections or assistance available through state gambling regulators.

Massachusetts legalised sports betting in 2022 and began operations in early 2023. Its licensed market requires bettors to be at least 21, uses age-verification technology, restricts advertising on college campuses and around college-game arenas, and generally bars wagers on in-state college teams outside tournaments. It also prohibits proposition bets on individual college athletes and requires mobile operators to offer daily, weekly and monthly deposit and wagering limits.

The commission said its age-verification rules had prevented at least 11,000 under-21 attempts to open accounts. Its enforcement work has resulted in 39 monetary-penalty actions, more than $1 million paid to the Commonwealth and nearly $10 million returned to patrons for operator-attributable errors.

Prediction markets generally allow users aged 18 and older to trade event contracts under CFTC oversight. Maynard argued that companies were offering sports wagers under another label to avoid state laws, taxes and regulatory requirements, including the protections Massachusetts applies to young adults and college-athlete betting.

That dispute is already before Massachusetts courts. In September 2025, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell sued Kalshi, alleging it accepted online sports wagers without the required state licence and marketed moneyline, point-spread and over-under contracts as event contracts. Maynard said a court granted an injunction against Kalshi, which appealed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Maynard urged Congress to preserve state and tribal authority over sports betting, impose a national prohibition on college-player proposition bets, and strengthen federal-state cooperation and information sharing.