As governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie played a major role in bringing the litigation that cleared the way for a nationwide expansion of sports betting in 2018 by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The system has worked great for eight years,” Christie said in an interview with The Nevada Independent. 

But Christie, brought in by the American Gaming Association (AGA) in December as a consultant, said the recent rise of prediction markets poses an existential threat to the system.

“You’ve got a bunch of rogue cowboys who want to come in and blow it up. That offends me,” Christie said.

Though gaming analysts don’t expect prediction markets to substantially eat into the expected millions of dollars sportsbooks will see bet on Sunday’s Super Bowl LX, the larger gaming industry is only ramping up its war against prediction market companies such as Kalshi and Polymarket. 

Also, legal challenges by the Nevada Gaming Control Board have temporarily blocked several companies from access to the Silver State.

The NFL championship is the largest annual single-game wagering event for the legal sports betting industry, due in part to the hundreds of game-related proposition bets and single-game parlay wagers offered by sportsbooks.

“Overall, we expect prediction markets to generate $500 million to $600 million in Super Bowl trading volume,” Eilers & Krejcik Gaming analyst Chris Krafcik wrote. Macquarie Securities gaming analyst Chad Beynon told The Indy that prediction markets would see Super Bowl activity in the low millions.

Through traditional sportsbooks and online wagers, Krafcik estimated $1.62 billion will be bet on Sunday’s game between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, a 10 percent increase from 2025. Beynon estimated Super Bowl bets would total $1.7 billion.

Last week, the AGA predicted more than $1.76 billion would be wagered legally on the Super Bowl.

In Nevada, Eilers & Krejcik predicted sportsbooks would take in $141.1 million in Super Bowl bets, the third-highest total behind New York and New Jersey. 

Last year, Nevada sportsbooks collected $151.6 million in Super Bowl wagers, down from a record $190 million in 2024 when Las Vegas hosted Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium.

During BetMGM’s fourth-quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday, CEO Adam Greenblatt said the sports betting operator “is not seeing a material adverse impact on its business” from prediction markets.

But for AGA CEO Bill Miller, one game doesn’t signal a victory for legal sports betting. He said the gaming industry was fighting sweepstakes gambling a year ago — a system with payouts that resemble gambling.

“By and large, we killed off sweeps. So here we are with this new challenge,” Miller told The Nevada Independent on Thursday. “There are always people who want to shortcut their way into the game. That’s what is happening here.”

Prediction markets offer contracts, which allow users to place “yes” or “no” bets on the outcomes of events ranging from entertainment, politics, pop culture, financial markets and even the weather. The AGA argues that markets violate state laws because they are regulated federally by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which oversees the U.S. derivatives market.

Rather than state by state, the reach is nationwide, allowing people to wager even in states that have not legalized sports betting. 

Christie had pointed words toward the CFTC, which he called “an absolute joke. They don’t have the wherewithal to be able to regulate [sports betting] in the way that will protect the integrity of the sport and the rights of the consumer.”

Representatives from several prediction markets did not respond to requests for comment.

Bringing in reinforcements 

In recent months — either by court order or voluntarily — multiple prediction market companies have been blocked across several states. 

Following October’s Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, several sports betting companies, including DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics, signaled their interest in prediction markets and gave up their membership in the AGA to pursue those opportunities. Miller said the change in direction by company leaders was due to pressure from shareholders. 

“They had publicly said they thought it was dangerous to get into prediction markets,” Miller said. “They changed course because there are states where [gaming] is not legal, and [prediction markets] were building massive databases. From their perspective, if they’re not in that space, then they’re going to get left behind.”

That’s why the AGA turned to Christie.

Now a private practice attorney and television political commentator, Christie said he never thought he would find himself helping to protect nationwide legal sports betting.

As governor, Christie signed a bill to legalize sports betting in New Jersey, which led to a six-year court battle that ultimately landed at the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices voted 6-3 in May 2018 to overturn the law, allowing states to legalize and regulate sports betting.

“This is a state rights issue,” Christie said. “It’s not like we’re advocating for one side or the other. In the 40 states that have said yes to sports betting, they should have the right to regulate it the way they see fit, to protect the integrity of the sport and their consumers.”

He added that in the 10 states without regulated sports betting, they should be allowed to keep prediction markets outside of their boundaries.

“Prediction markets come in and say, ‘We don’t care what your legislature says. We don’t care that your people have voted [against sports betting]. We’re going to do it anyway,’” Christie said.