The Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued the state of Wisconsin on Tuesday to reaffirm its exclusive federal jurisdiction over prediction markets.
The filing came less than a week after Wisconsin brought civil suits against Kalshi, Polymarket, Crypto.com, Robinhood, and Coinbase, asserting felony violations of state law.
Wisconsin is the latest state to argue that prediction market contracts amount to gambling under state law.
The CFTC’s position is that Congress assigned it exclusive jurisdiction over event contracts traded on designated contract markets decades ago, and that state gambling statutes cannot override that framework.
“States cannot circumvent the clear directive of Congress,” said CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig. “Our message to Wisconsin is the same as to New York, Arizona, and others: if you interfere with the operation of federal law in regulating financial markets, we will sue you.”
The agency pointed to a recent procedural win in Arizona, where a federal court issued a temporary restraining order blocking an Arizona criminal prosecution against a CFTC-regulated company.
The CFTC has now filed lawsuits against Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, and Wisconsin, and has filed amicus briefs in the Ninth Circuit and the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.
