
Boose. Current CFO of Sporttrade. Former Global Financial Controller of JPMC. Bad avid golfer. #alwaysbegolfing #ABG
Delaware
Joined February 2009
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Anthony Busacca retweeted
So 39 states and DC marched into the Supreme Court today, asking the Justices to bless their power to treat prediction markets as illegal gambling.
I can’t really explain just how wrong I think this is.
These are federal financial contracts, traded on a federally licensed exchange, and they belong under one regulator: the CFTC.
Their entire case leans on one idea: gambling is state turf, hands off. But that skips the only question that matters, which is what these contracts actually are... and what they are is financial instruments.
Contracts on inflation, interest rates, Fed moves, energy prices. Even the Ninth Circuit, one of the rulings these states lean on, agreed those sit squarely with the CFTC. Federal.
And here’s where I plant the flag: sports contracts belong there too. A contract on who wins the World Cup or the Super Bowl is fully collateralized, it trades on a federally licensed exchange, it clears under federal rules, the same plumbing as every other contract on the platform.
Calling it a “bet” because there’s a game involved doesn’t move it out of federal hands. The venue and the instrument decide who regulates. Not whether a state wants to call it gambling. The Third Circuit got that right.
Then the part that gets me. Flip through their own brief and they admit it, over and over: it’s chaos out there. Courts split three ways. A “turf war.”
“Hopelessly confused.” Twenty-plus rulings pointing every direction. It IS a mess... but think about what that proves. One financial product, on one federal exchange, and fifty states each want their own rule for it? That’s not a reason to keep fifty referees on the field. That’s the best argument I’ve seen for one. Congress already picked it. The CFTC.
These are federally regulated contracts, on a federally licensed exchange, overseen by the agency Congress built for exactly this. Saying “gambling” a hundred times doesn’t change what they are.
One regulator. One rulebook.
Anthony Busacca retweeted
When a team folds over and over again because they can’t execute fundamentals in crucial spots, it’s a mentality problem. It’s a coaching problem.
And the Yankees have never addressed it. It makes you wonder if the top decision-makers care enough to address it.
Anthony Busacca retweeted
Playoff baseball is so much fun when you don’t care who wins.
When your team is playing, it’s basically 3 straight hours of feeling like you’re about to have a heart attack.
Anthony Busacca retweeted
The Pats were in unfamiliar territory there for a few minutes playing against a starting QB. Glad to see everything’s status quo.
It’s the NFL. They couldn’t spring for Eddie Vedder to sing with his guitarist? Also why the heck was there a sign language guy signing to an instrumental only performance?
Anthony Busacca retweeted
Any Red Sox fan that spends an ounce of their time complaining about a call in a 16-1 game
Send them to therapy
They should move the location of the Little League World Series from Williamsport to the Field of Dreams in Iowa.
Anthony Busacca retweeted
New York intends to make event contract derivatives waste away under its iron curtain of state gaming laws before the courts issue final rulings. The @CFTC is required by law to ensure order in the derivatives markets, and that is what we’ve done today.
Read more: cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressRele…
Anthony Busacca retweeted
This guy’s fantasy punishment was playing a full round of golf without a ball and with complete strangers 😭
Nailed it
The 5 reasons soccer won't increase in popularity after the world cup is over.
1. The flopping. This goes against the soul of every American. We value grit, toughness and basically not being a pussy.
2. The clock. No one wants to get to the end of a game and have no clue when it's over. Just stop & start the clock when you need to, like sane people.
3. Offsides. Just put a line out there like everyone else. This floating line you have makes the game unwatchable. It's like a built in, anti-excitement glitch you manufactured for your game.
4. Red cards. What a stupid rule that you automatically get kicked out for the next game for getting one. I can understand suspending someone after a league review of something you did that was horrible. But to automatically get suspended because of what a ref saw at full speed is stupid.
5. Ties. In America we call it kissing your sister, cause that's the same feeling you get after a tie. Pure disgust. In soccer, it seems like the result you prefer most. Play til you have a winner.
Anthony Busacca retweeted
I view this as good news. Very good news.
To put it in sports terms. This is promotion, not relegation.
Anthony Busacca retweeted
The Arizona District Court's decision granting @CFTC /DOJ a preliminary injunction is a must read for those following PM litigation. The Court thoughtfully analyzed the key issues raised across these lawsuits and systematically decided them in favor of the fed govt (and PMs). Some notable takeaways:
1) Events = outcomes: "Events" and "occurrences" encompass contest outcomes. “The statutory definition of swap therefore reaches how an event unfolds, not just whether it happens.”
2) Congress chose a broad definition of financial consequences: "associated" requires only a connection (not direct causation), "potential" means not actual, and three disjunctive consequence categories (financial, commercial, economic) sweep widely.
3) The swap underlier need not be inherently financial: "Temperature and precipitation have no intrinsic financial value. Yet the CFTC and the Securities Exchange Commission have consistently treated weather derivatives as swaps….That is because weather events produce commercial consequences for a wide range of market participants.…Event contracts based on sports and election outcomes work the same way.”
4) Exclusive means exclusive: "The 'plain meaning' of Congress’s entrustment of 'exclusive' jurisdiction 'necessarily denies jurisdiction' to any entity besides the CFTC."
5) The Special Rule confirms the CFTC's jurisdiction: "By directing the CFTC to review event contracts and prohibit those contrary to the public interest, Congress placed event contracts under the CFTC’s exclusive authority.”
6) State enforcement frustrates Congress's goal of national markets: "The State’s enforcement of its gambling laws would also frustrate Congress’s objectives in creating a unified regulatory regime that oversees DCMs and ensuring that DCMs operate as national markets."
I appreciated the chance to have a real dialogue regarding the topic, and thank you for moderating @RealRogerGros
I’m not sure I would categorize the takeaway the same, however. I think I was able to nip a few important talking points in the bud.
Namely:
1. It was suggested on the panel that CFTC regulated registrants such as FCMs do no KYC or AML. I called out this accusation, at which point those who espoused it claimed they didn’t say it. (The articles author indeed has recorded that it was said).
Let me be clear: To claim that the CFTC nor its registrants employ strict KYC or AML procedures demonstrates an alarming level is misinformation.
2. It was suggested on the panel that CFTC registered DCMs are not “peer to peer”. I proved this to be false by account of my own use of submitting limit orders on venues like @Kalshi or @Polymarket. Peer to peer, or all to all, is a term that’s been used, for decades, to describe any electronic market. The presence of market makers has always been, and will always be, an important facet of electronic markets.
3. It was suggested that “participants aren’t given a fair shake” on DCMs, particularly in relativity to a Sportsbook or casino in Nevada.
I pushed back with facts:
On a federally regulated exchange, all participants can see the order book - what’s available, and at what quantity. Registered exchanges must publish to the public a record of all trades made, and a summary of activity of every listed contract.
Nevada regulated entities are not required to do any of the above. I’m not sure I would categorize those absences “a fair shake”.
Nice recap of our prediction markets panel at @EastCoastGaming. @a_kane47 tried his best to defend PMs, but with Mike Dreitzer, head of @NevadaGCB, he didn't have a chance.
igamingbusiness.com/casino/g…
Anthony Busacca retweeted
Rule 40.11 enumerating "gaming" (among other specific things) as a specific category of underlying events is referring to the underlying event itself. Not other activities ancillary to the underlying event. The underlying event of a sports event contract is the sporting event itself. Sports existed before gambling on sports. Elections existed before gambling on elections. Weather existed before gambling on the weather.
Calling a sport contest "gaming" and inferring that the contest itself is gambling is not supported from a common sense standpoint and certainly not supported from a legal standpoint. My kid isn't participating in gambling when playing tee-ball and Sam Darnold isn't participating in gambling when playing in the Super Bowl.
Sportsbooks hanging a line and not immediately funding their payout on a time-price priority marketplace is not a swap and thus not subject to federal regulation. That's why sportsbook licensing (in some states) exists at the state level. And why sports prediction market licensing exists at the federal level.
If 40.11 was supposed to include underlying activity involving "sports", it would have specifically and expressly listed "sports" as an enumerated category. It doesn't.
Regardless, whether 40.11 applies to a CFTC-registered institution is EXCLUSIVELY the CFTC's jurisdiction and not the patchwork of possible interpretations of each of the 50 states.
The global sports industry is in the trillions of dollars. Saying there is no economic impact to the outcome or occurrence of specific sporting events is laughable.
This is a pivotal ruling by the 3rd circuit as the first appellate court to rule.
Huge win for @Kalshi (and all PMs) in the 3rd Circuit. This is the first appellate ct to weigh in and sets important precedent for related litigation. Key takeaways:
1)CFTC has exclusive jurisdiction over swaps
2)Sports event contracts are swaps
3)Enforcing state gambling laws would undermine the purpose of the CEA (avoiding inconsistent patchwork of rules).
Notable quotes below:
“The Act preempts state laws that directly interfere with swaps traded on DCMs. Kalshi’s sports-related event contracts are swaps traded on a CFTC-licensed DCM, so the CFTC has exclusive jurisdiction.”
“Kalshi self-certified compliance with the applicable laws and regulations, so those event contracts were presumptively approved under federal law. See 7 U.S.C. § 7a-2(c)(1). To date, the CFTC has not determined that Kalshi’s sports-related event contracts are contrary to the public interest.”
"The Act provides that the relevant event or occurrence need only be “associated with a potential financial, economic, or commercial consequence.” 7 U.S.C. § 1a(47)(A), (A)(ii). As the dissent concedes, “[a] plain reading of the Act’s text suggests that Kalshi’s sports-event contracts fit comfortably within the statutory definition." Dissent at 2. That is correct. The outcome of a sports event certainly can be associated with a potential financial, economic, or commercial consequence….Because Kalshi’s sports-related event contracts are traded on a CFTC-licensed DCM and depend on event outcomes associated with economic consequences, they fit within the Act’s definition of “swaps” subject to the CFTC’s jurisdiction."
“Kalshi has demonstrated a reasonable chance of success in showing that the text of the Act preempts otherwise applicable state laws that purport to regulate sports-related event contracts on CFTC-licensed DCMs.”
“Because Kalshi’s sports-related event contracts are swaps under the Act, the District Court properly defined the scope of field preemption as the regulation of trading on a DCM (a form of futures trading) rather than as gambling (a broader and traditionally state-regulated field).
“Allowing New Jersey to enforce its gambling laws and state constitution would create an obstacle to executing the Act because such state enforcement would prohibit Kalshi, which operates a licensed DCM under the exclusive jurisdiction of the CFTC, from offering its sports-related event contracts in New Jersey. This state regulation is exactly the patchwork that Congress replaced wholecloth by creating the CFTC. Because that prohibition directly conflicts with the full purposes and objectives of the Act, we need not determine whether it would be impossible for Kalshi to comply with both state and federal regulations.”
Anthony Busacca retweeted
Federal law makes it clear that the @CFTC regulates derivatives. Whether it's sports, politics, or oil prices, the CFTC has clear jurisdiction under the federal regulatory framework to oversee prediction markets, and we have an obligation to defend our statute.
Watch more on @SquawkCNBC ⬇️
























