Research and analysis
Gaming and prediction-market law, one mechanic at a time.
How each gaming and prediction-market mechanic works, and where it is enforced. By Kale Pasch, JD, CFA, a former Skadden, Arps attorney.
32 published pieces
- Sweepstakes casinos 12
- Prediction markets 11
- Loot boxes and skins 5
- Online casinos and sportsbooks 3
- Supplier licensing 1
Published on this site
- Prediction marketsPrediction markets: passive software, introducing broker or advisor — the three paths comparedSide by side, from the staff letter, the Commission’s rules and NFA’s own pages: what each path allows a front end to do, what it asks for before launch and what the published figures are.Oct 17, 2026 · 7 min
- Prediction marketsPrediction markets: responsible gaming when an event contract looks like a betWhat a state sports-betting rule requires of a licensed sportsbook, what an exchange and a broker publish for their own customers, what the industry codes ask, and a checklist for a startup that wants to meet both.Oct 17, 2026 · 7 min
- Prediction marketsPrediction markets: seven businesses inside the stackWhat a startup can be in this market besides an exchange: the registration that applies to each of seven businesses, or the staff letter that removes it, and one public example of each from the filings.Oct 17, 2026 · 7 min
- Sweepstakes casinosSweepstakes casinos: a checklist for streamers, affiliates and promotersWhat the FTC Endorsement Guides, four state texts and three platforms’ own policies say to someone who markets a sweepstakes casino, and a checklist drawn from them.Oct 17, 2026 · 7 min
- Sweepstakes casinosSweepstakes casinos: does skill change anything in a Gold Coin game?Three ways statutes and courts measure chance, one state each, then what the new sweepstakes-casino statutes do with a game that has skill in it, and how one operator’s own rules draw a state line by game format.Oct 17, 2026 · 6 min
- Sweepstakes casinosSweepstakes casinos: how an operator leaves a stateWhat three statutes say about when they take effect, what two operators published about dated wind-downs, what attorneys general have recorded about stopping sales and redeeming balances, and what operators’ terms say about excluded territory.Oct 17, 2026 · 6 min
- Sweepstakes casinosSweepstakes casinos: the business, the economics, and where a startup fitsHow a dual-currency casino earns its money, what the published rules, SEC filings and court records say about its costs, which layers of the stack the California and New York statutes name, and where the public record shows a new company could build.Oct 17, 2026 · 18 min
- Sweepstakes casinosSweepstakes casinos: what the lobby offers, and the stack behind itThe game categories three operators, three statutes and three attorney-general documents name, how a coin pack is priced in the record, and who supplies the games, the platform and the mechanics behind the lobby.Oct 17, 2026 · 6 min
- Sweepstakes casinosSweepstakes casinos: which designs the new statutes and enforcement releases describe, and which they do notFive state statutes and three attorney-general releases, read feature by feature: the second coin, the casino-style game, the cash or equivalent prize and the purchase. What each text keys on, what it carves out and who it reaches.Oct 17, 2026 · 8 min
- Prediction marketsPrediction markets: the CFTC’s proposal on affiliated market makersThe CFTC has proposed rules for exchanges whose own affiliate trades on them, and it names prediction markets as the place the question matters most. What the proposal would require, what one exchange’s rulebook says today, and how to comment by October 5, 2026.Oct 2, 2026 · 5 min
- Loot boxes and skinsLoot boxes and skins: the full analysis for buildersEvery loot box has chance built in. Whether it is gambling turns on the other two ends: what the player stakes and whether the item can be worth something outside the game. The statutes, the cases from Kater to the Robux ruling, New York’s suit against Valve, the platform terms on transfer and cash-out, the odds rules, and the structures publishers use.Sep 28, 2026 · 23 min
- Loot boxes and skinsLoot boxes and skins: what they are and the test that decides themA paid key, a random cosmetic item and, in some games, a market to sell it in. Under state gambling law the deciding question is whether the item is “something of value” — read here against Valve’s own terms, New York’s lawsuit, Kater and the app-store rules.Sep 28, 2026 · 8 min