United States: Gaming

Former Senator Christopher Dodd and former CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler have filed amicus briefs challenging the Third Circuit's ruling that federal commodities law preempts New Jersey's regulation of sports event contracts. Their central argument contends that Congress enacted Dodd-Frank to regulate financial derivatives, not to transfer sports-betting oversight from states and tribes to the CFTC, raising fundamental questions about whether sports contracts qualify as swaps and the scope of federal preemptio

American Mah Jongg's annual card presents a unique copyright puzzle: while game rules cannot be copyrighted, the National Mah Jongg League protects its yearly publication of official winning hands. This article examines how copyright law distinguishes between unprotectable game mechanics and the protectable expression embodied in the League's standardized reference card.

The CFTC filed suit against Minnesota in federal district court on May 19, 2026, marking the agency’s sixth lawsuit in seven weeks against a state seeking to regulate or prohibit CFTC-registered prediction markets. Filed one day after Minnesota’s governor signed a first-in-the-nation ban into law, the complaint argues that the state’s criminalization of prediction market operators is preempted by the Commodity Exchange Act and violates the U.S. Constitution.