Prediction markets could face pushback not only through the courts in New York, but also through the Empire State’s legislature.
- A New York Assemblyman has introduced the ORACLE Act to impose state-specific oversight and regulation on prediction market platforms operating in New York.
- The bill would add tighter age limits, self-exclusion tools, and bans on contracts tied to sports, politics, deaths, stock prices, and catastrophic events.
- The proposal reflects growing legislative concern that federal regulation is insufficient amid ongoing legal disputes between prediction markets and New York regulators.
Democratic Assemblyman Clyde Vanel’s proposed "oversight and regulation of activity for contracts linked to events” bill, or the ORACLE Act, was again referred to the chamber’s Consumer Affairs and Protection committee this week.
The bill would create New York-specific requirements for prediction market operators, such as Crypto.com and Kalshi, that resemble the state’s rules for legalized sports betting and casino gambling.
“These platforms have to abide by the same regulations and safeguards that the other betting platforms have to do in New York State,” Vanel said last year, according to CBS 6 Albany. “So we have to make sure that we protect people with problem gambling.”
While the legislation has a long way to go before it becomes law, it shows there is an appetite among state lawmakers (in New York at least) to try to get their arms around prediction markets. Those exchanges are regulated in the U.S. by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, but for some legislators, it may not be enough.
Among other things, Vanel’s legislation would require prediction markets to restrict use to those 21 and older, rather than 18 as some companies require. The exchanges would need to provide a self-exclusion “mechanism” for users as well, which they could use to ban themselves from trading.
The bill would also prohibit prediction markets from allowing users to trade contracts involving “catastrophic” events, politics, deaths, stock prices, and sports.
— Clyde Vanel (@clydevanel) November 12, 2025
That last restriction could cause concern for prediction market operators, which are currently seeing most of their trading volume come from the buying and selling of sports-related event contracts, such as bets on NFL playoff games.
Given their federal regulation, prediction markets are widely available across the U.S., which is not the case for online sportsbooks. However, the introduction and growth of those sports event contracts has meant they have been met with by hostility in some states, including New York, where regulators view them as a little too much like state-regulated online sports betting.
Kalshi was hit with a cease-and-desist order from the New York State Gaming Commission last year, and responded by filing a lawsuit against the New York sports betting regulator. That litigation, as well as several other lawsuits in several other states, is ongoing.
The ORACLE Act proposes throwing up an additional legislative roadblock for prediction markets seeking to offer sports event contracts.
“We make sure that we protect (a) certain amount of exposure to this, we make sure that there are certain protections that are involved,” Vanel said.
