Who’s in charge of this ship?
The CFTC appears rudderless at a vital predictions moment
Leaderless financial regulator sails into unknown waters.
In +More: Tabcorp proposes pubs shake-up.
The UK Gambling Commission’s statistical slap.
Montana bans sweepstakes, redefines promo games as gambling.
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All at sea
Chaos theory: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission would appear to be struggling to generate a quorum of members with the usual roster of five commissioners destined to be whittled down to just one by July.
The latest departure has seen Democrat nominee Kristin Johnson announce that she will depart the post in July.
This followed two previously announced departures due at the end of this week: Republican commissioner Summer Mersinger will leave to join the blockchain Association while Democrat Christy Goldsmith Romero is also set to depart.
Where’s Brian? It leaves the CFTC down to just one member: the interim chair Caroline Pham who herself is meant to be replaced by Trump nominee Brian Quintenz as and when he is confirmed by the Senate. However, no date has been set for his hearing.
Meanwhile, the agency has found itself in legal hot water over the mishandling of a case brought against My Forex Funds.
Bloomberg noted that the commissioner personnel issues come at a bad time with the Trump administration barrelling through a “warp-speed overhaul of crypto regulation” which would see the CFTC’s role could expand to overseeing digital commodities like Bitcoin.
The newswire quotes a former CFTC attorney, Peter Malyshev, as suggesting the agency would be required to quickly write and implement new rules to govern the market.
Flood gates: All this is occurring at the same time that the rollout of sports-based prediction markets under the cover of self-certified CFTC clearance continues apace. Lobby group Better Markets has complained that following the CFTC’s decision to drop its action against Kalshi that the body would result in the “proliferation of gambling more broadly.”
Dennis Kelleher, Co-founder, President and CEO of Better Markets, said that decision would “open the flood gates to all sorts of creatively engineered financial products claiming to fit within the gaping statutory loophole the court opened.
“It means gambling on democracy today, but gambling on everything tomorrow, with the ineffective, underfunded, incapable CFTC ludicrously in charge,” he added.
Pham affair: Before the current wave of departures at the top, the CFTC had promised a roundtable on prediction markets. However, that was cancelled.
At least the Tribes are to get a hearing. According to a report in InGame, acting chair Pham will participate in a conference call this week.
Read across 1: Summer Mersinger’s move to the Blockchain Association suggests the revolving door “isn’t just corrupting the CFTC – it may end the pretense of a Commission altogether.” From American Prospect.
Read across 2: “We are pulling apart our own regulatory foundation – block by block, case by case, and rule by rule,” says departing Democrat SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw. In the FT.
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+More
Tabcorp wants to stop paying thousands of pubs for hosting its betting products in a move that puts the company and its new chief executive Gillon McLachlan on a collision course with the powerful hotels lobby. According to the Australian Financial Review, the move would represent the biggest shake-up in the retail gaming sector for decades.
Ireland’s Gambling Regulatory Authority will open licence applications in 2025, but the full licensed regime, and its social impact fund, won’t begin until mid-2026. Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan confirmed the delay in parliament, noting that operator contributions to the fund will be based on turnover, though the rate is still undecided.
India’s Supreme Court will hear a Public Interest Litigation seeking a national ban on illegal betting apps, tougher rules for fantasy sports, and a clear law on skill-based gaming. The plea, citing celebrity promotions and debt-related suicides, has triggered a notice to the federal government, but state authorities have not yet become involved.
Thailand’s new government-backed G-Token is not for speculative punts, the country’s securities regulator has warned. Tradeable only on listed exchanges and banned for direct payments, the G-Token will launch via the Public Debt Management Office, but isn’t classed as a debt instrument.
Merkur is back in Nevada with a new licence and the approved acquisition of Las Vegas-based Gaming Arts. The move marks a return to the US for the Merkur Group, more than two decades after its initial Nevada licence in 1998. The family-owned business quit the market in the early 2000s.
Poison chalice: The Isle Of Man treasury has appointed Gregory Petts as chair of the Gambling Supervision Commission. Petts’ background includes audit, governance and risk management roles within the gaming industry.
UKGC’s statistical slap
Getting the Hump: The UK Gambling Commission’s Gambling Survey for Great Britain has come in for criticism from the Office for Statistics Regulation for failing to communicate the biases that may affect its estimates.
In a letter to the UKGC’s Tim Miler, the head of the OSR Ed Humpherson has set out nine recommendations for the UKGC to improve its survey.
Admit it: Included among the recommendations is a suggestion that the Commission should do more to implement the recommendations of Professor Sturgis.
Recall, Sturgis had concluded that who had said more research was necessary before the survey’s findings on a greater degree of problem gambling than in previous surveys.
The ORS said the Commission’s report for the GSGB had failed to “explicitly state that the GSGB could be an overestimation.”
Own it: The OSR added that the Commission should “clearly communicate to users within the statistical releases the potential biases that may affect the GSGB estimates” as well as Sturgis’ conclusion “regarding the risk that the statistics potentially overestimate some gambling behaviours.”
Moreover, the Commission needs to more clearly explain “what the statistics can and can’t be used for, and why and “ensure that guidance on how to use the statistics is easy to find and tailored to different users, such as the media
Read across: UK Gambling Commission CEO Andrew Rhodes has consistently claimed the GSGB is the “new gold standard” of gambling statistics. However, the OSR says that the Commission should “do more” to investigate the “coherence and comparability” of GSGB statistics with other relevant data.
This should include the data from the Health Survey for England and the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey that will be published later this year.
Open-minded: Notably, the OSR says the Commission should make a better effort to “build trust with users” and should “remain open to receiving challenge, provide feedback to users on their contributions and clearly communicate what can and cannot be addressed in the development of the GSGB statistics.”
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Montana’s sweepstakes ban
A horse with no name: Montana has become the first US state to ban online sweepstakes-style games, despite warning that the new law could criminalize common digital promotions.
Signed into law by Governor Greg Gianforte, Senate Bill 555 redefines promotional games as “internet gambling,” and does not mention sweepstakes by name in the legislation.
Breaches of the law carry felony penalties of up to $50,000 and 10 years’ prison.
Everybody in the place: The Social and Promotional Games Association (SPGA), which represents a group of sweepstakes operators, said the broad language potentially targets legitimate programs like Microsoft Rewards.
Users can enter free sweepstakes by earning digital points, raising fears over consumer trust, legal clarity, and marketing innovation, the SPGA said.
It called the law a “dangerous precedent” that could chill long-standing legal practices.
Florida and Maryland rejected similar bills this year.
Separately, sweepstakes gaming operator VGW has confirmed that it is exiting New York having informed players with its Chumba Casino, Luckland Slots and Global Poker sites last weekend.
Curaçao row
Porto despair: A whistleblower has accused a Curaçao-licensed online casino linked to Bets Entertainment N.V. of illegally targeting Portuguese players.
They claim to have evidence of anti-money laundering, licensing, and responsible gambling breaches, with videos, local payment trails, and active customer support in Portuguese.
According to the Curaçao Chronicle, complaints were sent to the Portuguese regulator, Curaçao GCB, and others, prompting regulatory scrutiny.
The casino blamed VPN use, denied targeted activity, and pledged stronger geo-blocks.
Allegations also include predatory VIP schemes, KYC failures, and internal misconduct, adding pressure on Curaçao’s efforts to reform its loosely regulated online gambling framework.
Calendar
Event highlight: Gaming in Holland has announced its full line-up for this year’s event, including keynotes from Björn Fuchs, newly appointed chair of VNLOK; and Henry Meijdam, who heads the VAN Kansspelen trade association. Also confirmed are speeches from Arjan Blok, CEO of Nederlandse Loterij; Renske Fikkers, head of market supervision at the Netherlands Gambling Authority; and Henk Willem Smits, investigative reporter at Follow the Money. To register, click here.
Jun 5: Gaming in Holland, Amsterdam
Jun 9-12: IAGA, Berlin
Jun 26: Gaming in Spain, Madrid
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