Sports Prediction Markets taxed as gambling?

This market will resolve to "Yes" if, by April 15, 2027, 11:59 PM ET, the IRS or U.S. Department of the Treasury publishes formal guidance classifying losses from CFTC-regulated sports event contracts as subject to the 90% loss cap under Section 165(d) of the Internal Revenue Code, as amended by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law 119-21). Otherwise, this market will resolve to "No".

For purposes of this market, sports event contracts are contracts whose payoff is determined by the outcome, score, or statistical result of an athletic competition listed on a CFTC-designated contract market or swap execution facility.

Qualifying guidance must be published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin or the Federal Register as a Revenue Ruling, Revenue Procedure, IRS Notice, IRS Announcement, final or temporary Treasury Regulation, or proposed Treasury Regulation that remains published without withdrawal for at least 30 calendar days after its Federal Register publication date. Guidance qualifies if it expressly applies Section 165(d) to such contracts or classifies them as wagering transactions for federal income tax purposes. Guidance classifying sports event contracts as wagering solely for purposes of Section 4401, Section 6041, Section 3402(q), or other Code sections that do not bear on the deductibility of losses does not qualify. Non-qualifying actions include Private Letter Rulings, Chief Counsel Advice, Tax Court decisions, IRS official statements, Congressional testimony, and web-based publications not appearing in the Internal Revenue Bulletin or Federal Register. A final and non-appealable decision of the U.S. Supreme Court holding that CFTC-regulated sports event contracts are subject to Section 165(d) also qualifies for resolution.

This market will resolve to "No" if qualifying guidance is withdrawn, modified into non-qualifying form, or superseded by non-qualifying guidance before April 15, 2027; if federal legislation repeals Section 165(d) or exempts CFTC-regulated sports event contracts from its application; if federal legislation establishes a tax treatment for sports event contracts incompatible with Section 165(d) prior to qualifying guidance being issued; or if the CFTC prohibits the listing of sports event contracts on all CFTC-designated contract markets before any qualifying guidance is issued.

The resolution source for this market is the Internal Revenue Bulletin (irs.gov/irb) and the Federal Register (federalregister.gov).

Prediction markets function as real-time belief compression layers where distributed information becomes executable probability.

Each trade represents:

• updated information processing
• position hedging against future states
• narrative reinforcement or rejection
• asymmetric knowledge correction

Unlike polling or forecasting models, these systems continuously self-correct through financial exposure, making them sensitive to:

This produces a live probabilistic system that behaves closer to a market-driven intelligence engine than a static prediction tool.