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During a recent Nevada Gaming Control Board meeting, retired judge and board member George Assad took direct aim at prediction market platforms, saying they are disguising sports bets under financial terminology and warning that Nevada regulators plan to intervene.
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Assad began by referring to a lesser-known ruling from Judge Gordon that, in his view, exposes how prediction markets are structuring bets as financial derivatives.
“I would like to comment on a recent case by Judge Gordon that got very little publicity,” said Assad. “As a public service announcement, I would like to inform all those participants like Kalshi and crypto.com, Polymarket, etc., that the gig is up.”
He accused operators of using misleading language to mask what regulators view as straightforward betting activity.
“These judges are starting to wake up and they’re starting to see that this word salad they’ve been producing is nothing more than a word salad. A derivative contract, whatever you want to call it, is nothing more than a sports wager.”
“A sports wager is a sports wager. Every bet made in this town is a contract. You can call it a derivative contract, you can call it a credit default swap, like they did during the housing bubble, but whatever you want to call it, it is still a sports bet. Therefore, it is under the jurisdiction of the Nevada Gaming Commission and the Nevada Gaming Control Board.”
His remarks followed news that Nevada regulators had filed a motion to gain access to Kalshi’s communications with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as part of a review of its federally regulated event contract model.
Assad also cited a recent Maryland ruling that reinforced state power over gambling regulation.
“The recent decision by the judge in Maryland made it crystal clear that the federal government does not have exclusive jurisdiction in this field, that states have the right to control gambling in their state as they have traditionally done.”
He accused several platforms of trying to impose their business models on jurisdictions that prohibit or tightly regulate gambling.
“These people like Kalshi and crypto.com want to come in and impose their will on the sovereign nations like the Indian tribes, which is outrageous, and on states like California, Texas, Utah and others who don’t want gambling at all. And then they want to impose their will on Nevada.”
Beyond jurisdictional issues, Assad said regulators were concerned about protecting young people from early gambling exposure.
“We want to protect 18 and 19-year-old kids from becoming possibly addicted to gambling at a young age when their immaturity level is not sufficient enough to know how to treat gambling. We are putting a stop to this.”
He added that Nevada intends to pursue tax recovery from operators profiting from unlicensed betting.
“They’ve made millions and millions and millions of dollars and deprived Nevada of a lot of tax revenue and our attorneys will hopefully seek to recapture that ill-gotten gain.”
Assad ended his remarks with a pointed metaphor directed at prediction market operators.
“So just as a word to the wise out there: You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still going to be a pig.”