WIGA Supports Attorney General’s Action to Address Kalshi’s Unlawful Gambling Activity
Kalshi calls itself a “prediction market.” Let’s call it what it is: gambling without any rules or protections.
The Washington Indian Gaming Association (WIGA) appreciates Attorney General Nick Brown’s action to address unlawful gambling activity. Washington has spent decades building a carefully regulated gaming system through a government-to-government relationship between the state and tribes – one designed to protect consumers, ensure integrity, and support communities.
That partnership must remain central. Issues with this level of impact on tribal gaming require meaningful government-to-government engagement with tribes from the onset.
Unregulated prediction markets have spread nationwide, operating outside these established frameworks and lacking consistent safeguards against addictions, age verification, and the accountability.
Relabeling sports betting as a financial product does not change its real-world impacts. It simply puts consumers at risk and raises fundamental questions about who has the authority to regulate these activities.
Tribal gaming supports more than 52,000 jobs in Washington, more than 52,000 jobs, $7.4 billion added to the state economy and $1.9 billion paid to employees in wages and benefits annually. Unregulated markets divert that activity without meeting the same standards or giving back to the community.
We support efforts to address unlawful activity and to protect consumers. Moving forward, it is essential that tribal governments are fully engaged as partners in any approach that affects their rights, their economies, and their regulatory systems.
This is ultimately a national issue. Congress must act to ensure that emerging markets do not operate outside the consumer protections, regulatory frameworks, and sovereign rights that have long governed gaming in this country.
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