Former Top Trump Official Is Going After Prediction Markets
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As the battle over prediction markets rages on, Mick Mulvaney is leading a new coalition that calls these platforms illegal gambling.
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Kate Knibbs Business Mar 2, 2026 7:00 AM Former Top Trump Official Is Going After Prediction Markets As the battle over prediction markets rages on, Mick Mulvaney is leading a new coalition that calls these platforms illegal gambling. Photographer: PATRICK T. FALLON/Getty Images Save this story Save this story Mick Mulvaney wants to be clear: He really likes gambling. “You're talking to the only former member of Congress who's won a poker tournament in Las Vegas,” he tells WIRED. When he was representing South Carolina in the US House of Representatives, he pushed for the state to allow sports betting . Because of his background, Mulvaney, a former Trump administration official, says he can tell when something is gambling—and that the sports contracts on prediction markets fit the bill. “You know the old saying, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck?” he asks. “If it looks like a sports bet, if it sounds like a sports bet, if it pays off like a sports bet, if it's on a sporting event—it's a sports bet.” Mulvaney, who was President Trump’s acting White House chief of staff from 2019 to 2020, is now leading a new advocacy coalition called Gambling Is Not Investing, which will lobby for prediction markets to be regulated by state gambling laws. He joins a number of other prominent Republicans calling for similar rules. Earlier this month, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and current Utah Governor Spencer Cox both spoke out against the current federal approach to regulating prediction markets. (Christie also used the “ quack like a duck ” line.) These developments are part of a fierce political battle over how prediction markets are regulated. On the federal level, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversees these platforms, which are currently classified as derivatives markets. While a traditional sportsbook will offer customers a chance to place a bet on which team will win or lose a game, a prediction market will offer an “event c...
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