Cortez Masto Says CFTC's Geofencing Order Is Meant to Profit the Trump Family

Nevada's Democratic senator has answered the federal regulator's demand that exchanges stop blocking states by accusing its chairman of encouraging companies to ignore court orders. Her attack lands as Nevada wins more time to answer Crypto.com at the Supreme Court.

• Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada wrote on X on 9 November that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman "is encouraging companies to keep offering these bets in violation of court orders", according to CDC Gaming
• She said "the Trump family is heavily invested in prediction market platforms" and that the move is "intended to create profits for the president's family"
• Her post follows the CFTC's 5 November interpretation telling exchanges to end state geofencing within 30 days or explain why they cannot
• Donald Trump Jr. advises Kalshi and sits on Polymarket's advisory board, ties a Republican senator has already asked the Senate to examine
• The Supreme Court on 9 November gave Nevada until 7 December to answer Crypto.com's petition asking whether federal law pre-empts state regulation of sports event contracts

A Senator Answers the CFTC's Access Rule

Cortez Masto, a Democrat, attacked CFTC Chairman Michael Selig in a post on X on Monday 9 November, CDC Gaming reported. "Federal courts have ruled repeatedly that states and tribes regulate gambling within their territory," she wrote. "But the chairman of the CFTC is encouraging companies to keep offering these bets in violation of court orders." CDC Gaming reported that she called sports prediction markets gambling.

She then turned to the president's family. "Let's be clear about what's happening: The Trump family is heavily invested in prediction market platforms," she wrote, as quoted by CDC Gaming. "This move to undermine tribal and state sovereignty is intended to create profits for the president's family. That should outrage all of us." The post, as reported, does not name a company or a family member.

The move she refers to is the CFTC's interpretation of its impartial access rule, Regulation 38.151(b), released on 5 November. It says designated contract markets "must cease domestic geographic restrictions that violate the Impartial Access Requirements within 30 days, or else submit to the Division of Market Oversight" an explanation of why compliance is not feasible. Selig said derivatives markets "must operate on a uniform basis at a national scale". Kalshi blocks Nevada under a July settlement of a state court order, and Michigan and Washington under court orders.

What the Trump Family Line Refers To

CDC Gaming's report says Donald Trump Jr. serves as a strategic adviser to Kalshi and Polymarket with equity stakes in both, and that his venture firm, 1789 Capital, led funding rounds into Polymarket. As iGT reported in September, Kalshi named him a strategic adviser in January 2025, and Polymarket said in August 2025 that he had joined its advisory board alongside an investment from 1789 Capital, where he is a partner. His spokesman told CNN in March that he does not trade on prediction markets and has not dealt with the federal government for either company.

Nevada Gets More Time at the Supreme Court

On the same day, the Supreme Court granted Nevada a further extension in North American Derivatives Exchange v. Nevada, No. 26-344, moving the state's response from 16 November to 7 December, according to the docket. Nevada's counsel, Nicole Saharsky of Mayer Brown, asked on 6 November, citing other deadlines, and Crypto.com consented. The petition asks whether the Commodity Exchange Act pre-empts state regulation of sports event contracts on a designated contract market, citing the split between the Third Circuit and the Ninth Circuit's August ruling in Kalshi's Nevada case, which the full court declined to rehear on 4 November.

The Senator Reads the Order More Bluntly Than Its Text

The CFTC interpretation never mentions a state court, and it gives exchanges a written route out if compliance "is not feasible". Cortez Masto's reading, that the chairman is encouraging companies to break court orders, goes further than the document. But a recorded federal duty running the other way is what a pre-emption argument needs once the 30 days run out, on 5 December if counted from the release.

The Conflict Argument Now Comes From Both Parties

Senator John Curtis, a Utah Republican, put Trump Jr.'s prediction-market ties into a request to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September. Cortez Masto goes further by linking them to a specific agency act. Neither has shown that the CFTC acted to help any family member, and the post as reported offers no evidence of it. Still, the more the platforms' federal shelter is tied in public to the president's family, the harder it is to present the CFTC as neutral.

7 December Is the Date to Watch

Nevada's answer to Crypto.com is now due on the same day as Kalshi's response to New Jersey's petition in Flaherty v. KalshiEX, two days after the CFTC's access deadline. That puts both sides of the circuit split on the same timetable as the access fight.

Cortez Masto's charge adds political cost to the CFTC's push but changes no court order. The answer to whose rule prevails will come from the Supreme Court, not from X.