Gensler Says Kalshi Is Flat Wrong: Sports Bets Aren’t Swaps (1)

Gary Gensler, overseer of Wall Street for significant parts of the last two decades, has a message for anyone arguing sports betting is a matter for federal financial regulators: They’re wrong.

After seeing prediction market giant Kalshi and the federal agency he once ran, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, argue that sports bets are swaps under federal oversight, Gensler decided to file a brief in a federal appeals court in Ohio on Thursday.

Gary Gensler

Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg

The issue — an age-old question of federal power versus the states — has become a major dispute across the country that will likely ...