Las Vegas Culinary Union Cheers Bill to Ban Sports Prediction Markets

Culinary Workers Union Local 226, the largest labor union in Las Vegas, is supporting a federal bill to block prediction markets from offering trading on sports and casino-style events.

Nevada’s congressional delegation is at the forefront of the federal push in Washington, DC, to overhaul what events prediction markets can and cannot offer for trading.

This week, United States Reps. Steven Horsford (D-NV) and Mark Amodei (R-NV) introduced the House version of the Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act, a clone of the Senate bill filed in March by Sens. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and John Curtis (R-UT).

The legislation seeks to command the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to prohibit its licensed prediction market operators from offering trading on sports and other matters that the bill’s supporters say mimic casino gambling.

“Gaming policy has long been the responsibility of states and tribes, not unelected federal regulators,” said Rep. Amodei. “This bipartisan bill closes a federal loophole that allows sports betting to masquerade as financial trading and ensures legitimate event contracts remain under the CFTC’s jurisdiction.”

The Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act, Horsford and Amodei say, is a bipartisan bill that would stop federally regulated trading platforms “from offering sports betting and casino-style gambling under the guise of financial products.”

The House version of the Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act is House Resolution 9856. The Senate counterpart is Senate Bill 4160.

Union Cheers

Culinary Union 226 is the largest trade group in Nevada, representing some 60,000 workers employed in the hospitality and casino industries. The union quickly came out in support of Horsford and Amodei bringing the Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act to the House.

“Prediction markets are running illegal sports betting across the country, putting hospitality jobs at risk. Lawmakers should reaffirm that gaming is governed by tribal and state authorities and explicitly ban prediction market sports betting and casino games,” Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Union, said in remarks provided to Casino.org.

Pappageorge believes prediction markets threaten to “gamble away” the good union jobs and associated wages, health care benefits, and retirement pensions that Culinary provides.

Can House Move Bill?

Schiff and Curtis’ Senate version of the Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act has made no progress, with the bill remaining in the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry since it was directed there in March.

Horsford and Amodei hope to field more support in the House. The bill has been assigned to the House Committee on Agriculture.

The bills have been routed through their chambers’ respective agricultural committees because the Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act deals with CFTC regulation. Historically, the CFTC has regulated the financial trading of contracts related to agricultural commodities, such as corn, wheat, soybeans, and livestock.