California Nations Indian Gaming Association Statement on Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe Entering into Prediction Markets

Press Release
For Immediate Release

Contact: James May
(916) 754-7540
[email protected]

California Nations Indian Gaming Association Statement on Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe Entering into Prediction Markets

September 18, 2026

Sacramento, CA -The California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA) issued the following statement on the Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe entering into prediction markets:
"The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe made a profoundly disappointing decision today.

Less than 48 hours after the Ninth Circuit held that Kalshi's sports-event contracts are Class III gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, Tunica-Biloxi chose to stand with Kalshi and help legitimize the same business model that other Tribal Nations and states across America are fighting to stop. The court made it clear that Kalshi's sports contracts constitute Class III gaming and that entering into these contracts on Tribal lands violates the law.

Let's be clear about how we got here. Kalshi, Polymarket, and other well-funded prediction-market companies created this crisis. They pushed sports gambling across the country while arguing that the laws that apply to everyone else somehow don't apply to them. CNIGA will not be distracted. Who offers the sports betting contract is irrelevant. The fact that it is offered on state or tribal land over state or tribal objection remains a violation of sovereignty.

Tunica-Biloxi should know what is at stake. Tribal Nations spent generations fighting for and building a system that ensures governments, not corporations, benefit from tribal gaming. Choosing to partner with Kalshi undermines the work of all the tribal leaders who came before us, and those in the trenches today.

Each Tribe can make its own business decisions. But it cannot make illegal gaming legal. A sports bet is still a sports bet. Class III gaming is still Class III gaming. And a business deal does not change the law."

About the California Nations Indian Gaming Association
The California Nations Indian Gaming Association is a non-profit association of 58 federally recognized tribal governments dedicated to the protection of tribal sovereignty and the inherent right of tribes to have gaming on Indian lands.

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