By Emma Kinery
Gongwer News Service
CHICAGO — State lawmakers challenged Kalshi’s head of corporate development after a panel discussion on prediction markets Monday, questioning just how open the company is to working with them.
“There were things said up there today that I feel we have to correct the record on for the rest of the audience here,” Iowa Sen. Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs, said here at the National Conference of State Legislatures’s annual legislative summit, addressing panelist Sara Slane during the Q&A.
“I just want to represent our point of view out here. For a lot of people in the audience listening to this, the states are the ones that pick up the pieces.”
Dawson’s remarks were met with applause by the crowd of state legislators and other conference attendees.
The panel included Slane; Mick Mulvaney, executive director of the Gambling is Not Investing Coalition and a former acting White House chief of staff to President Donald Trump; and Michael Hoenig, vice president and associate general counsel for gaming at the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation in California.
Slane acknowledged in her opening remarks the tense situation between the state lawmakers and the industry.
“I understand right now it’s going to be a very controversial discussion,” Slane said. “We’re in litigation right now in 20 states. We’re in tribal litigation as well. I think we all expect that — I think we’re in almost every single circuit court at this point — I think we’re all expecting that yes, there will be a resolution and it probably will come from the Supreme Court at some point in time, but I do think it is important to understand our point of view, which is we are here as willing participants in the states.”
Dawson, addressing Slane at the Q&A, said her description of working with the states did not square with his experience.
“There needs to be a discussion both ways with the states and with predictive market companies and ma’am, I appreciate everything you’re saying up there, but that has not been some of our experiences,” Dawson said.
The Iowa state senator pointed specifically to the taxation remarks, saying Kalshi and other prediction market operators were unwilling to cooperate with Iowa legislators while crafting a bill to tax prediction markets in the state. He said the subcommittee sent the companies several simple questions, such as how many people are participating in event contract wagering in the state.
“We couldn’t get one answer out of predictive market companies as to how many Iowans are actually impacted,” Dawson said. “And that’s one state. Now, there’s 49 more states around here.”
Dawson told the room the Iowa Senate subcommittee met with prediction market companies including Kalshi on the taxation bill, and within seven days the state was sued.
“Typically you file lawsuits based upon when you have standing when a law is passed,” Dawson said. “Never based upon what a meeting outcome is or a bill that gets filed.”
Dawson said that even if the regulatory authority is ultimately decided at the Supreme Court, “there has to be a good relation between the states and the companies here, one way or the other.”
Slane did not address the lawsuit or the specifics of the Iowa meetings, but said it was the industry that killed the tax bill, not Kalshi.
“I will say that in Iowa, the industry was the one that ended up killing that tax bill,” Slane said. “So again, we’re willing to have conversations, and I appreciate your feedback and concerns. And again, we will continue to have those conversations.”
Kalshi has now sued Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Tennessee and Utah.
Since April, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — which claims exclusive regulatory jurisdiction over prediction markets to the chagrin of state regulators — has filed lawsuits against nine states: Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.
Three states passed bills this year to tax prediction markets. Kentucky became the first state to do so in April, placing a 14.25% levy on transaction fees; Illinois passed a 1.75% tax on each “exchange wager” up to 5 million a year and 3.5% on each wager after; and North Carolina passed a 6% tax.
Slane called the North Carolina law “a reasonable tax that was passed and implemented.”
“The one thing that I would caution against is you can’t regulate through taxation,” Slane said. “A state like Illinois, unfortunately, and Kentucky, which are now being sued by the CFTC, they took the taxation model too far. I think that is a conversation in which we are definitely willing to have.”
Dawson was among the state lawmakers, including Pennsylvania Rep. Tarik Khan, D-Philadelphia, and Ohio Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Colombus, who questioned the company’s practices and the impact of prediction market access in their states at the Q&A. Khan, noting that 6% of Pennsylvania adults have a gambling disorder, questioned if Kalshi was really doing enough to protect citizens.
“Isn’t your hashtag ‘Bet On Anything?’” Khan said following Slane’s response detailing how the company joined the National Council on Problem Gambling despite, in their view, being a trading — not gambling — platform. “I don’t think you’re fooling anyone. I think we all know that this is gambling.”
DeMora, who serves as the treasurer of the National Conference of Legislators from Gaming States, asked Hoenig about the ethics concerns he’d mentioned during the panel.
“I just want to confirm that these are the facts: That the CFTC has one commissioner out of five; that commissioner used to be an attorney for a predictive market; and that the family members of the current president have financial stakes in predictive markets?”
Hoenig said that was correct. The CFTC is typically run by a five-person bipartisan panel, but at the moment CFTC Chairman Mike Selig is the sole sitting member.
Donald Trump Jr. has influential roles in both of the two major prediction market operators in the United States, Kalshi and Polymarket.
Gongwer News Service
CHICAGO — State lawmakers challenged Kalshi’s head of corporate development after a panel discussion on prediction markets Monday, questioning just how open the company is to working with them.
“There were things said up there today that I feel we have to correct the record on for the rest of the audience here,” Iowa Sen. Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs, said here at the National Conference of State Legislatures’s annual legislative summit, addressing panelist Sara Slane during the Q&A.
“I just want to represent our point of view out here. For a lot of people in the audience listening to this, the states are the ones that pick up the pieces.”
Dawson’s remarks were met with applause by the crowd of state legislators and other conference attendees.
The panel included Slane; Mick Mulvaney, executive director of the Gambling is Not Investing Coalition and a former acting White House chief of staff to President Donald Trump; and Michael Hoenig, vice president and associate general counsel for gaming at the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation in California.
Slane acknowledged in her opening remarks the tense situation between the state lawmakers and the industry.
“I understand right now it’s going to be a very controversial discussion,” Slane said. “We’re in litigation right now in 20 states. We’re in tribal litigation as well. I think we all expect that — I think we’re in almost every single circuit court at this point — I think we’re all expecting that yes, there will be a resolution and it probably will come from the Supreme Court at some point in time, but I do think it is important to understand our point of view, which is we are here as willing participants in the states.”
Dawson, addressing Slane at the Q&A, said her description of working with the states did not square with his experience.
“There needs to be a discussion both ways with the states and with predictive market companies and ma’am, I appreciate everything you’re saying up there, but that has not been some of our experiences,” Dawson said.
The Iowa state senator pointed specifically to the taxation remarks, saying Kalshi and other prediction market operators were unwilling to cooperate with Iowa legislators while crafting a bill to tax prediction markets in the state. He said the subcommittee sent the companies several simple questions, such as how many people are participating in event contract wagering in the state.
“We couldn’t get one answer out of predictive market companies as to how many Iowans are actually impacted,” Dawson said. “And that’s one state. Now, there’s 49 more states around here.”
Dawson told the room the Iowa Senate subcommittee met with prediction market companies including Kalshi on the taxation bill, and within seven days the state was sued.
“Typically you file lawsuits based upon when you have standing when a law is passed,” Dawson said. “Never based upon what a meeting outcome is or a bill that gets filed.”
Dawson said that even if the regulatory authority is ultimately decided at the Supreme Court, “there has to be a good relation between the states and the companies here, one way or the other.”
Slane did not address the lawsuit or the specifics of the Iowa meetings, but said it was the industry that killed the tax bill, not Kalshi.
“I will say that in Iowa, the industry was the one that ended up killing that tax bill,” Slane said. “So again, we’re willing to have conversations, and I appreciate your feedback and concerns. And again, we will continue to have those conversations.”
Kalshi has now sued Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Tennessee and Utah.
Since April, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — which claims exclusive regulatory jurisdiction over prediction markets to the chagrin of state regulators — has filed lawsuits against nine states: Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.
Three states passed bills this year to tax prediction markets. Kentucky became the first state to do so in April, placing a 14.25% levy on transaction fees; Illinois passed a 1.75% tax on each “exchange wager” up to 5 million a year and 3.5% on each wager after; and North Carolina passed a 6% tax.
Slane called the North Carolina law “a reasonable tax that was passed and implemented.”
“The one thing that I would caution against is you can’t regulate through taxation,” Slane said. “A state like Illinois, unfortunately, and Kentucky, which are now being sued by the CFTC, they took the taxation model too far. I think that is a conversation in which we are definitely willing to have.”
Dawson was among the state lawmakers, including Pennsylvania Rep. Tarik Khan, D-Philadelphia, and Ohio Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Colombus, who questioned the company’s practices and the impact of prediction market access in their states at the Q&A. Khan, noting that 6% of Pennsylvania adults have a gambling disorder, questioned if Kalshi was really doing enough to protect citizens.
“Isn’t your hashtag ‘Bet On Anything?’” Khan said following Slane’s response detailing how the company joined the National Council on Problem Gambling despite, in their view, being a trading — not gambling — platform. “I don’t think you’re fooling anyone. I think we all know that this is gambling.”
DeMora, who serves as the treasurer of the National Conference of Legislators from Gaming States, asked Hoenig about the ethics concerns he’d mentioned during the panel.
“I just want to confirm that these are the facts: That the CFTC has one commissioner out of five; that commissioner used to be an attorney for a predictive market; and that the family members of the current president have financial stakes in predictive markets?”
Hoenig said that was correct. The CFTC is typically run by a five-person bipartisan panel, but at the moment CFTC Chairman Mike Selig is the sole sitting member.
Donald Trump Jr. has influential roles in both of the two major prediction market operators in the United States, Kalshi and Polymarket.
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