Court Says Betting on US Elections Can Resume

Betting on the outcome of US Congressional elections can resume, at least temporarily, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit dissolved an order it had previously issued that prevented New York startup company Kalshi from taking bets on which political party would control the House and Senate after this November's elections. The ruling clears the way for such betting to resume while the court further considers the underlying issues in the case, the AP reports. So far, Kalshi has only offered bets on congressional races; it was not immediately clear whether they plan to expand offerings to include the presidential election.

The court said it could reconsider a ban if the commission provides new evidence of serious harm to the public interest in the coming weeks. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the government agency trying to prevent such betting, declined comment. Kalshi is seeking government approval and regulation of political bets. But the commission denied that approval, saying that such bets are vulnerable to manipulation, and could lessen already fragile confidence in the integrity of American elections. A federal court last month ruled in favor of Kalshi.

Kalshi took about $50,000 worth of such bets in the eight hours after the ruling, until the appeals panel issued a freeze on them. That freeze was melted on Wednesday when the court ruled that the commission did not prove that irreparable harm was likely to result from the resumption of election betting.

• A "sad and ominous day for election integrity." Better Markets, a non-profit group advocating for the public interest in financial markets, called it "a sad and ominous day for election integrity in the United States." "Gambling on elections will create powerful new incentives for bad actors to interfere with our elections and sway voters outside of the democratic process," said Stephen Hall, the group's legal director. He warned that "the promise of quick profits" adds to the danger posed by the "use of AI, deepfakes, and social media to manipulate voters and influence election outcomes."

(More Election 2024 stories.)