Tobique First Nation enacts Prediction Markets Act and creates dedicated authority in New Brunswick

The Tobique First Nation, a community in New Brunswick, Canada, has introduced its own regulatory framework for prediction markets. The move follows a similar step by Gibraltar in Europe, according to the report.

The community has fewer than 3,000 members, based on a 2025 census. It already has its own gambling regulator, the Tobique Gaming Commission, which was created under the Tobique Gaming Act of 2023. The commission is described as a sovereign authority that works outside Canadian provincial and federal gambling legislation, built on the nation's inherent right to self-govern.

Using those self-governance powers, Tobique has now enacted a Prediction Markets Act and created the Tobique Prediction Market Authority. The new body will operate separately from the Tobique Gaming Commission and will oversee only the holders of relevant permits.

The First Nation said the statute was enacted in the hope of promoting and preserving Tobique's reputation as an internationally credible jurisdiction for regulated prediction markets. It has also chosen CL Specialist Projects Limited as its principal advisory partner on global market and business developments, with Cliff Lewin, Director of CL Ltd, serving as the main advisory contact.

The report presents Tobique as the first and only indigenous sovereign government to launch dedicated prediction markets legislation, both in Canada and across North America. The Act sits outside Canadian federal and provincial law, which has historically imposed heavy restrictions on short-term binary options. Those rules do not explicitly ban prediction markets but have pushed them into a grey area.

The source suggests it will be worth watching whether other First Nations follow Tobique's example by building their own frameworks. That could be especially relevant in places with indigenous populations where states have explicitly banned prediction markets.