TechFlow News, June 15: According to a Cointelegraph report, on June 13 local time, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a federal lawsuit against the Governor, Attorney General, and members of the New Mexico Gaming Control Board, seeking to prevent the state from applying its gaming laws to CFTC-registered contract markets. Earlier, on June 4, New Mexico sued prediction market platform Kalshi, accusing it of offering sports betting services to residents without proper licensing and permitting users aged 18–20 to access the platform—below the state’s legal gambling age of 21. The CFTC contends that the contracts in question qualify as “swaps” under federal commodities law, granting the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over such contract markets.
New Mexico is the eighth state against which the CFTC has filed suit over jurisdictional disputes concerning prediction markets; previous lawsuits have been filed against Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York, Arizona, Connecticut, and Illinois.
