Proponents of election markets pointed to the value they provide to researchers, journalists, members of the public, and even those who don’t place wagers themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cPredictIt tends to experience heavy website traffic as election results are reported, usually far in excess of the number of individuals who are trading contracts,\u201d Aristotle wrote in its comments to the CFTC. \u201cThis indicates that the public sees prediction market data as an important tool in understanding election results, which are often unclear and even misleading, as individual counties across the country report partial results.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opponents pointed to the growing influence of \u201cdark money\u201d in U.S. elections, and said that allowing large bets to be placed on the outcome would further diminish the role of voters in the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs betting apps proliferate on mobile phones, widespread gambling on our elections through the simple click of a button has an insidious effect upon the purpose, function and integrity of the electoral process,\u201d<\/strong> wrote Reps. John Sarbanes and Jamie Raskin, both Democrats from Maryland.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\u201cMoreover, since 2012, our nation has seen a deluge of dark money attempt to drown out the voices of voters, an undercurrent of election denialism and extremism, and an increase in politically-motivated violence,” they continued. “The proposed political event contract would only further incentivize such activity and encourage bad actors, or even those just looking to make a fast dollar, to interfere with our elections and seek to sway voters outside of the democratic process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kalshi supporters said such concerns were unfounded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese questions effectively ask commenters to prove a negative. As difficult as that task is, real-world evidence to disprove these hypothetical horribles is readily available,\u201d Aristotle wrote. \u201cPolitical prediction markets exist in advanced democracies sharing many cultural and political similarities to the U.S., including the UK, Australia, and Ireland. Those markets have existed for many decades in their modern forms with no significant harm to electoral processes or campaigns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next Steps<\/b><\/h2>\n The CFTC has until the end of September to make a decision on Kalshi. But observers don’t expect the commission to sign off on the market under its current leadership.<\/p>\n
Separately, the CFTC is fighting PredictIt in court over an attempt to shut down that site after allowing it to operate since 2014. A federal appeals court last week handed PredictIt an interim victory<\/a> that will allow it to keep operating for now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal regulators have received more than 1,300 comments on a proposal that would widen access to political betting markets in the U.S. Opponents of the proposal say it risks undermining the integrity of elections. Supporters say the markets are a valuable forecasting tool that has long existed in other countries without incident. The Commodity Futures […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":240133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83108,13592],"tags":[82218,82529,82190],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Commodity Futures Trading Commission Hears Input on Political Betting - Casino.org<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n