Gary Gensler

Former Chairman, SEC

Former CFTC Chair Gary Gensler on regulating sports betting: Let the states do it

📅 Jun 11, 2026 CNBC Television 10 MIN 33 SEGMENTS · 3 SPEAKERS

Gary Gensler, former CFTC chairman under President Obama and former SEC chairman under President Biden, joins 'Squawk ...

What Gary Gensler said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Gary Gensler, former CFTC Chairman, said he is filing an amicus brief in the Sixth Circuit arguing that Congress did not intend the CFTC to regulate sports betting when it passed the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. He said the law was aimed at credit default swaps and interest rate swaps, not sports betting, and that Senator Harry Reid would have rejected any such move. Gensler criticized the CFTC's recent proposal to assert authority over sports betting, saying the agency lacks the legal basis and resources, and noted the CFTC has shrunk to about 400 people. He argued states should regulate sports betting, pointing out that 11 states prohibit it entirely and some set the minimum age at 21, while the CFTC would allow it nationwide for 18-year-olds. He also discussed the difficulty of preventing insider trading in prediction markets, citing the DARPA proposal on terrorism contracts that was rejected, and mentioned the 'Eddie Murphy provision' he helped add to make trading on government inside information illegal.

Key takeaways

Gensler is filing an amicus brief in the Sixth Circuit arguing the CFTC has no authority over sports betting under Dodd-Frank.
The CFTC's proposal to regulate sports betting should be rejected; the agency has shrunk to about 400 people and lacks resources.
States should regulate sports betting; 11 states prohibit it completely and some set the minimum age at 21, unlike the CFTC's all-50-states approach.
Gensler helped add the 'Eddie Murphy provision' making it illegal to trade on inside information from the government.
Prediction markets on terrorism or assassination are too risky to protect the integrity of the underlying market.

Numbers and commitments

Figure	What it refers to	Type	At
2010	Year Dodd-Frank Act was passed	timeline	0:10
54 times	Number of times Gensler testified before Congress	metric	3:19
2011	Year CFTC unanimously voted to prohibit contracts on gaming	timeline	4:08
400 people	Current size of CFTC staff	metric	6:37
11 states	Number of states that prohibit sports betting completely	metric	6:37
21	Minimum age for sports betting in some states	metric	6:37
18	Minimum age CFTC would allow for sports betting	metric	6:37
24 hours	Time it took for DARPA terrorism contract proposal to be shot down	timeline	7:30

Chapters

0:00Purpose of the amicus brief
2:28Congressional intent behind Dodd-Frank
3:43CFTC's proposal to regulate sports betting
6:22State regulation vs. federal authority
7:30Prediction markets and insider trading risks
9:15The Eddie Murphy provision

Questions asked in this interview

0:33Is that why you're in town?
3:04And then after he loses and they prove that he did pay taxes, and then Harry Reid says, well, we won, didn't we?
3:43Is that a step in the right direction?
5:28So would the CFTC try to say to the states that they're not able to do that?
7:26Think we've got a handle on the non-sports?
8:41And everything else in the world?

Narrator 0:10 ↗

Former CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler is filing an amicus brief arguing Congress did not intend to make the CFTC the nationwide regulator of sports betting when it passed the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. Gary Gensler served as CFTC Chairman under President Obama when Dodd-Frank was passed, and he later served as SEC Chair, as you know, and was a frequent guest under President Biden.

Interviewer 0:33 ↗

Good to see you this morning. You're in town. Terrific to be with you. How were those, Kelly? How were those courtside seats you had last night at the game? Is that why you're in town? Boy, that would have been exciting. I mean, can you just imagine with 1.2 seconds left, that little tip in on his fingertips. I mean, he barely was able to reach it. Yeah, and when it was 29 points away, I went on Polymarket. I have to admit it. I went on, I said, and right then it was trading at $0.93 to $0.07. It was. Yeah. And then, you know, it came the other way. But you didn't place a bet.

Gary Gensler 1:10 ↗

No, I did not. I have no economic interest in any. But off camera, you said you can understand why people like to do this. Look, it's since antiquity, we humans like to wager on sports. I think at the core of this issue is did Congress in 2010 say no. None of the states can regulate this. It's going to this little small agency that I once was proud to run. And the answer is categorically no. If we had asked Senator Harry Reid, who was then the majority leader, who had the Nevada senator, Harry Reid, we're going to take this and move this to the federal government. He would have thrown me out of his office. Right.

Interviewer 1:52 ↗

It's not staffed.

Gary Gensler 1:53 ↗

It's not, was never designed.

Interviewer 1:55 ↗

It's no, it's not handle it. It's, it's an agency that was set up in the 1970s around corn, wheat, agricultural derivatives, and then energy and interest rate derivatives, important stuff, really important stuff. But to think that you're going to regulate millions of transactions of whether somebody is going to hit a three point play.

Gary Gensler 2:22 ↗

Yeah. So what is your in the end, you're going to file an amicus brief.

Interviewer 2:25 ↗

Later today in the Sixth Circuit.

Gary Gensler 2:27 ↗

In the Sixth Circuit, saying what?

Well, in essence, I want to tell the story of why Congress did what they did. Millions of people were out of work. Millions of people had lost their homes. And there was a desire to cover what was called the credit default swap market and the interest swap market, not sports betting. And tell that in a way, courts like to hear it, looking at the text, looking at the words. And I think that's what I want to do. And I want to respect Harry Reid too. I know you and I might differ on Harry.

Interviewer 3:04 ↗

I told you I was still mad at Harry for. And I'm not necessarily a Mitt Romney fan, but. But to say he never paid any taxes. And then after he loses and they prove that he did pay taxes, and then Harry Reid says, well, we won, didn't we? He knew the whole time.

Gary Gensler 3:19 ↗

But to think that under the US Senate at that time, when nobody was talking about sports betting. No, I testified in Congress 54 times. And literally Republicans and Democrats alike. Nobody said, oh, you know what, Gensler? I think we should give your small agency under President Obama authority to regulate sports betting.

Interviewer 3:43 ↗

Even this recent kind of like the rise of all these platforms comes from the CFTC dropping lawsuits against them. I mean, it's not as if that there was some big rule change. So the CFTC now has come out with this big proposal. I'm sure you've seen it, 200 some pages where they talk about what they think should and shouldn't be permitted. They would permit betting on outcomes, maybe not so much betting on injuries and things that can be more manipulated. Is that a step in the right direction?

Gary Gensler 4:08 ↗

No, no. What they're trying to do is to, one, say that they have authority over sports betting, which I don't think they do. That will play out all the way to the Supreme Court, of course. And two, they're trying to reverse a rule. We voted unanimously back in like 2011, unanimously to prohibit agreements, contracts or transactions. Listen, on assassination, war, terrorism, gaming or on unlawful acts. Those five categories were placed there in Congress, and it was placed there because most members of Congress thought there shouldn't be contracts on assassination, war and terrorism. And interestingly, Congress said, put gaming in there, too. There shouldn't be contracts.

Interviewer 4:52 ↗

And they're now arguing that gaming is a, you know, a different definition or something.

Gary Gensler 4:56 ↗

Yeah. And so we unanimously voted on that 14, 15 years ago. And the CFTC is saying, well, let's reverse that. But I don't even think they have authority over sports betting at all.

16 more exchanges in this transcript

Cite this transcript

APA, MLA, BibTeX

APA

Gensler, G. (2026, June 11). Former CFTC Chair Gary Gensler on regulating sports betting: Let the states do it [Interview transcript]. CNBC Television. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/978591/

MLA

Gary Gensler. "Former CFTC Chair Gary Gensler on regulating sports betting: Let the states do it." CNBC Television, 11 Jun. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/978591/.

BibTeX

@misc{gensler2026_978591,
  author       = {Gary Gensler},
  title        = {Former CFTC Chair Gary Gensler on regulating sports betting: Let the states do it},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, CNBC Television. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {jun},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/978591/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}

▶

Key Quotes (4)

“I think at the core of this issue is did Congress in 2010 say no. None of the states can regulate this. It's going to this little small agency that I once was proud to run. And the answer is categorically no.”

▶ 1:22 POLICY

“It's an agency that was set up in the 1970s around corn, wheat, agricultural derivatives, and then energy and interest rate derivatives, important stuff, really important stuff. But to think that you're going to regulate millions of transactions of whether somebody is going to hit a three point play.”

▶ 1:58 POLICY

“The states have a lot of money. The CFTC doesn't have the resources. That's right. The CFTC has shrunk, but it's maybe 400 people. It's actually just recently, this past week has put out another downsizing. And then the states have all this revenue. Let the states do it.”

▶ 6:33 POLICY

“There are legitimate concerns and debates about addiction, there's legitimate concerns about whether this is good for kids to do the dopamine rush of it all, so to speak. Let the states sort that out.”

▶ 7:10 POLICY

Mentioned in this interview

Harry Reid: Nevada senator and majority leader who would have rejected federal sports betting regulation

Polymarket: Prediction market platform where revenues are concentrated in sports betting

Cohere None-Cohere: Platform where sports betting revenues are concentrated

FanDuel: Competitor in sports betting that states could continue to regulate

DraftKings DKNG: Competitor in sports betting that states could continue to regulate

DARPA: Defense agency that proposed terrorism contracts, shot down in 24 hours

George W. Bush: Administration that disavowed DARPA's terrorism contract proposal

Eddie Murphy: Actor whose movie 'Trading Places' inspired the provision on government insider trading

Earlier, on the same topics

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About Gary Gensler

Gary Gensler, former chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and current MIT professor, has been active in public discussions on artificial intelligence, financial markets, and the European economy. In podcast appearances and interviews, he has repeatedly warned that the current AI investment boom carries significant risks, describing the capital expenditure as roughly 2.5% of U.S. GDP—about twice the level of the 1990s internet build-out—and stating that a retrenchment in the AI trade is a matter of when, not if. He has also noted that major AI companies face competitive pressure from Chinese models and has called for responsible regulation of AI, drawing parallels to financial and healthcare oversight while acknowledging the difficulty of controlling existential risks. Gensler has also addressed specific market issues, including the potential IPO of AI company Anthropic. He said that if he were still at the SEC, he would advise the company to work with staff to keep politics out of the process and to ensure proper disclosure of material risks to investors. In discussions on Europe, he observed that the European Union's economy has fallen behind the U.S. in innovation and capital market development, citing the fragmented nature of European markets and the rise of nationalist political parties. He has also commented on the U.S. stock market's valuation, noting a trailing price-earnings ratio of 31 and market capitalization at 225% of GDP, while suggesting that some AI-related sectors remain undervalued.

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