Although Mr. Selway's comments about "gambling" were specifically in reference to excessive leverage, it is notable that the term is also used by critics to define many of the contracts that trade on prediction markets.  

In the case of truly "passive," funds, it is not clear whether advisers should be voting in the interests of their investors or voting consistent with their disclosures to investors. The latter means that they should be "passive" as opposed to taking a view on any individual item. If they describe themselves as fully passive, their votes could be cast by an algorithm that is described in their offering documents. If they do not vote in a passive manner, then they should describe the manner…

Although the CEA makes insider trading illegal, as a practical matter that illegality has been of limited significance. For the most part, the concept of material nonpublic information is not broadly relevant as to many commodities in the way that it is to corporate issuers. With event contracts where money is at stake on very non-traditional commodities, there are clearly going to be many situations where certain individuals have information advantages. Congress, regulators and courts will…

It's a shame that Congress is so divided that it cannot resolve this issue, one way or the other. It is not a healthy resolution for the CFTC to be suing what seems to be a majority of the states on an interpretative question that is not free from doubt.