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Source/Full Story - GamingAmerica'
Nevada Gaming Control Board Chair Mike Dreitzer revealed the state is evaluating a prediction-style slot machine product
even as Nevada continues its legal battle against prediction market platforms.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board has spent the better part of 2026 in court trying to keep Kalshi off the state’s casino floors.
It has filed complaints, obtained restraining orders, argued before the Ninth Circuit, and maintained consistently that prediction
market products are gambling and must comply with state gaming law. That position has not changed.
What has changed is what NGCB Chair Mike Dreitzer said out loud last week.
Speaking at the Economic Club of Las Vegas, Dreitzer told gaming executives that he had seen a five-reel spinning slot machine
driven by prediction outcomes at ICE Barcelona earlier this year, and that the Board is currently evaluating a prediction-style product.
“We are currently looking at a prediction-style product,” he said, without naming the manufacturer under consideration.
“We’re okay with that innovation, as long as you do it in accordance with laws and regulations.”
That last clause is doing significant work. The distinction Dreitzer is drawing is not between prediction markets and prediction-style
products. It is between products that comply with Nevada’s licensing framework and products that do not. From the Board’s perspective,
those two sentences are entirely consistent. From the outside, they look like the state trying to have it both ways.
The Argument Nevada Is Actually Making
To be fair to Dreitzer, the argument is coherent if you follow it carefully. Nevada’s objection to Kalshi is not that prediction-style
mechanics are inherently wrong. It is that Kalshi is offering what the state considers a gambling product while claiming
CFTC jurisdiction exempts it from state gaming law.
Dreitzer has previously warned that prediction market operators outside state licensing frameworks could ultimately set up casino-like
products entirely unregulated by states. The concern is not prediction mechanics themselves but the precedent of allowing a class of
product to operate in a gaming-adjacent space without state oversight, consumer protections, or the regulatory accountability
that Nevada’s framework requires.
A licensed prediction-style slot machine, approved through Nevada’s test lab, subject to gaming board oversight, operated by a licensed casino,
and available only to patrons physically present on a regulated floor, is a fundamentally different animal from a CFTC-registered exchange offering
sports event contracts to anyone with a smartphone in all 50 states. The regulatory DNA is entirely different even if the surface experience looks similar.
The Innovation Problem Dreitzer Is Solving
The prediction-style product comment landed inside a broader speech about Nevada falling behind on gaming innovation, and that
context matters for understanding why Dreitzer is saying it.
“Frankly, Nevada has fallen behind on innovation and technology. We’ve been late to the party with respect to getting newer products
approved through the test lab in ways that are apparent and consistent,” Dreitzer said. He pointed to manufacturers who had told the
Board that products could not pass through Nevada because the approval process could take a year. “With Governor Lombardo’s leadership,
I’ve picked up that mantle to say we’re going to streamline it.”
The Board has brought in new leadership in its test lab, introduced a new set of regulations it describes as overdue, and is actively
working to create what Dreitzer called “an environment of the latest and greatest of gaming technology.” He found 30-year-old regulations
that no longer made sense, including instances where the Board was asking licensees for information it did not use.
The innovation urgency is not abstract. Nevada’s gaming industry has faced well-documented challenges over the past year, with visitor
numbers in Las Vegas down and competition from regional markets intensifying. The controversial yet innovative DK Replay, the Hard Rock
motorsports product, and the expanding prediction market ecosystem have demonstrated consumer appetite for the mechanics underlying
prediction-driven gaming. If that appetite is going to exist regardless, Nevada has a clear interest in ensuring its licensed operators can serve it.
Nevada Gaming Control Board Chair Mike Dreitzer revealed the state is evaluating a prediction-style slot machine product
even as Nevada continues its legal battle against prediction market platforms.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board has spent the better part of 2026 in court trying to keep Kalshi off the state’s casino floors.
It has filed complaints, obtained restraining orders, argued before the Ninth Circuit, and maintained consistently that prediction
market products are gambling and must comply with state gaming law. That position has not changed.
What has changed is what NGCB Chair Mike Dreitzer said out loud last week.
Speaking at the Economic Club of Las Vegas, Dreitzer told gaming executives that he had seen a five-reel spinning slot machine
driven by prediction outcomes at ICE Barcelona earlier this year, and that the Board is currently evaluating a prediction-style product.
“We are currently looking at a prediction-style product,” he said, without naming the manufacturer under consideration.
“We’re okay with that innovation, as long as you do it in accordance with laws and regulations.”
That last clause is doing significant work. The distinction Dreitzer is drawing is not between prediction markets and prediction-style
products. It is between products that comply with Nevada’s licensing framework and products that do not. From the Board’s perspective,
those two sentences are entirely consistent. From the outside, they look like the state trying to have it both ways.
The Argument Nevada Is Actually Making
To be fair to Dreitzer, the argument is coherent if you follow it carefully. Nevada’s objection to Kalshi is not that prediction-style
mechanics are inherently wrong. It is that Kalshi is offering what the state considers a gambling product while claiming
CFTC jurisdiction exempts it from state gaming law.
Dreitzer has previously warned that prediction market operators outside state licensing frameworks could ultimately set up casino-like
products entirely unregulated by states. The concern is not prediction mechanics themselves but the precedent of allowing a class of
product to operate in a gaming-adjacent space without state oversight, consumer protections, or the regulatory accountability
that Nevada’s framework requires.
A licensed prediction-style slot machine, approved through Nevada’s test lab, subject to gaming board oversight, operated by a licensed casino,
and available only to patrons physically present on a regulated floor, is a fundamentally different animal from a CFTC-registered exchange offering
sports event contracts to anyone with a smartphone in all 50 states. The regulatory DNA is entirely different even if the surface experience looks similar.
The Innovation Problem Dreitzer Is Solving
The prediction-style product comment landed inside a broader speech about Nevada falling behind on gaming innovation, and that
context matters for understanding why Dreitzer is saying it.
“Frankly, Nevada has fallen behind on innovation and technology. We’ve been late to the party with respect to getting newer products
approved through the test lab in ways that are apparent and consistent,” Dreitzer said. He pointed to manufacturers who had told the
Board that products could not pass through Nevada because the approval process could take a year. “With Governor Lombardo’s leadership,
I’ve picked up that mantle to say we’re going to streamline it.”
The Board has brought in new leadership in its test lab, introduced a new set of regulations it describes as overdue, and is actively
working to create what Dreitzer called “an environment of the latest and greatest of gaming technology.” He found 30-year-old regulations
that no longer made sense, including instances where the Board was asking licensees for information it did not use.
The innovation urgency is not abstract. Nevada’s gaming industry has faced well-documented challenges over the past year, with visitor
numbers in Las Vegas down and competition from regional markets intensifying. The controversial yet innovative DK Replay, the Hard Rock
motorsports product, and the expanding prediction market ecosystem have demonstrated consumer appetite for the mechanics underlying
prediction-driven gaming. If that appetite is going to exist regardless, Nevada has a clear interest in ensuring its licensed operators can serve it.