Gambling on Democracy: A Bad Bet

October 2, 2024

Gambling on Democracy: A Bad Bet

Today's Unfortunate Decision Effectively Allows Gambling on Elections

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied a motion to put on hold a district court decision allowing betting on elections, including during the current election season. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has long prohibited gamblingon elections, to protect the public interest in election integrity. The decision comes on the heels of a Public Citizen comment in support of this prohibition.

Craig Holman, Ph.D., Government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen, released the following statement in response:

"Elections should never be viewed as simple games on which to wager for personal financial gain. Yet, today's federal appeals court ruling allows such games. At a time when the public's confidence in the integrity of elections is dispiritingly low, widespread gamblingthreatens to tank it entirely.

"Public Citizen stands with the CFTC's long-standing rule that the government should not sanction betting on election outcomes. A contract proposal by KalshiEX, LLC (Kalshi) to allow the firm to run large-scale gamblingon election outcomes explicitly runs afoul of the Commodity Exchange Act and Commission regulations that prohibits contracts 'contrary to the public interest,' such as turning free and fair elections into a game to be exploited for personal gain.

"It is important that elections not be about money. Elections are the pillar of democracy. The more the public loses confidence in the good character of free and fair elections, the more our democracy is at risk."