CFTC chair defends role as regulator, Front Office Sports reports

President Donald Trump criticized prediction markets as turning society into a “casino,” while CFTC chair Michael Selig said the government’s role is to regulate, not restrict, trading, emphasizing the need for safeguards against abuses like insider trading, Ben Horney of Front Office Sports reports. Selig argues the Commodity Exchange Act gives the agency broad, possibly exclusive authority over these markets, though that claim is being challenged in dozens of lawsuits that may ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, Horney writes. The Fly notes that shares of DraftKings (DKNG) and Flutter (FLUT) are up nearly 2% and 1.6%, respectively, at midday.