Donald Trump Jr. holds financial and advisory ties to two major prediction-market companies while their access to US customers turns on decisions by a federal regulator led by presidential appointees. Sen. John Curtis is asking the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate that arrangement as part of a broader inquiry into presidential relatives profiting from proximity to power.
Legal Sports Report says Trump Jr. is a partner at 1789 Capital, which participated in a $1 billion funding round for Polymarket, and sits on Polymarket’s advisory board. He has also worked as a paid strategic adviser to Kalshi; the article reports that he received $300,000 in Kalshi equity in January 2025.
Those relationships matter because the companies’ expansion depends on a contested legal theory. Kalshi and Polymarket treat event contracts as federally regulated derivatives under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, rather than wagers subject to each state’s gambling laws. The regulator’s position can therefore open markets nationwide that state officials might otherwise restrict.
Curtis’s letter says the platforms “depend on favorable federal regulatory decisions” and asks the committee to subpoena Trump Jr. Legal Sports Report also cites New York Times reporting that Trump Jr. told Republican state attorneys general prediction markets should be overseen by federal officials, a message the Times characterized as urging them to back off.
This is a request for an investigation, not evidence that Trump Jr., either platform or the CFTC violated the law. But it identifies a conflict built into the regulatory fight: an adviser and investor with access to the president can press for federal preemption while state regulators challenge the same companies as unlicensed gambling operations. The financial benefit comes not only from attracting bettors, but from winning the argument over which government gets to regulate the bet.