DraftKings is now advertising that they're available everywhere in the U.S. How did they get past Nevada gaming laws?
[Editor's Note: This answer is proffered by our own David McKee.]
We'll tell you how: by basically ignoring them. Put another way, via a clever legalistic dodge.
DraftKings withdrew its attempts to offer sports betting in Nevada, a state stubbornly resistant to the kind of online sports betting that is offered in most of the U.S. So it's hard to blame the company for that. What they did, however, is at best disingenuous.
Following the lead of the disreputable Polymarket and slightly more respectable Kalshi, DraftKings launched its own line of "event contracts." Under the rubric of “DraftKings Predicts,” DK now offers these pseudo-wagers in all states that don’t allow online sports betting. That includes Nevada, sort of; here, a sports bettor must sign up in person at a licensed land-based casino and use Nevada-specific or localized apps provided by major casino operators, such as BetMGM Nevada, Caesars Sportsbook, and Circa Sports. FanDuel and DraftKings are verboten.
So. How can DraftKings offer something that is essentially illegal in the Silver State? Well, event contracts enjoy the protection of the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It maintains a legalistic fiction that placing a wager on whether or not the Sacramento Athletics will win their next game constitutes an “economic event.” And the CFTC is quick to sue any state so bold as to clamp down on this form of betting, which claims to be no different than speculating on pork-belly futures.
While the legality of event contracts on sports is being hashed out in federal court, companies like DraftKings can engage in this activity with some degree of impunity. That said, DraftKings’ own site maintains that only financial markets can be bet on in Nevada. They have to be careful here, as Kalshi has already been kicked out of the state for engaging in sports betting. But cross the state line into California or Utah and you can place a wager on damn near anything under the sun, much to the chagrin of those states’ governments. (Prediction markets pay no state-level taxes.)
While DraftKings is presently playing it cool in Nevada, make no mistake. Should the Supreme Court rule favorably on sports betting-via-prediction markets, as could happen in 2027, the ink won’t be dry on the opinion before sports betting in everything but name is being offered all across the Silver State. You can bet on it.
