Raskin, Salinas Introduce Legislation to Ban Gambling on U.S. Elections

Washington, DC - Today, Representatives Jamie Raskin (MD-08) and Andrea Salinas (OR-06) introduced the Ban Gambling on Elections Act to prohibit betting on U.S. elections. The bill is the House companion to Senator Jeff Merkley's (D-OR) legislation in the Senate.

The legislation would amend the Commodity Exchange Act-a law that regulates the trading of commodities and futures in the U.S.-to prohibit political election wagering of any kind.

"With distrust in our electoral system at an all-time high, we must crack down on gambling in all U.S. elections," said Rep. Raskin. "Our democracy demands reliable and transparent processes to cast ballots and tally results, not a horserace clouded by gambling odds and bets placed. I am proud to go all-in with Congresswoman Salinas and Senator Merkley in calling on Congress to ante up and pass this commonsense legislation."

"Elections betting sets a dangerous precedent, incentivizing bad actors to try and influence or interfere with our elections systems. We cannot play roulette with our democracy by allowing this kind of wagering without a thorough accounting of the potential consequences," said Rep. Salinas. "That is why I am proud to introduce legislation with Congressman Raskin and Senator Merkley that would ban individuals from gambling on our elections. I will also continue working to provide more federal resources for gambling addiction treatment and research. While sports betting and online gambling have become permanent forms of American entertainment, we must acknowledge and help mitigate the harm caused by related addictions."

"Betting on elections degrades them from an investment in leadership to a profit-maximizing game," said Sen. Merkley. "In addition, this practice is corrupt since those betting can influence the outcome by funding late-cycle smear campaigns. It's like betting on a baseball game when you control the umpire. It's a great step forward to have House leaders like Rep. Raskin and Congresswoman Salinas take on this fight."

"Gambling on elections is a bad bet," said Craig Holman, Ph.D., of Public Citizen. "Elections should never be viewed as simple games on which to wager for personal financial gain. At a time when the public's confidence in the integrity of elections is dispiritingly low, widespread gambling threatens to further undermine confidence in the validity of election outcomes."

"Voting is the foundation of democracy and gambling should have no place in the process where the American people choose their leaders," said Dennis Kelleher, Co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Better Markets." Betting hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars on elections will incentivize manipulation and interference while undermining Americans' faith and trust in elections. Gamblers also should not be allowed to unleash gambling on American elections by sneaking it in through the back door of the CFTC, which has no expertise, experience, or ability to regulate or police election gambling. It will also distract the CFTC from its vital public mission of protecting the commodities markets, which all Americans rely on for everything from cereal and bread to oil and gas. We applaud Reps. Raskin & Salinas for sponsoring this commonsense legislation to protect democracy and the public interest."

Rep. Raskin backed previous efforts to ban gambling on U.S. elections, including calling on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to enforce an outright ban on elections gambling and urging the CFTC to deny a private company's request to allow individuals to place bets on party control of Congress for a given term.

Betting on elections is not a small problem. At least $930 million was wagered on the 2024 election, across two major betting platforms, including bets on the outcome of the presidential contest and House and Senate races, according to a report. Other brokerages and websites offered gambling on outcomes of the 2024 election but did not immediately disclose the total money users put at stake.

The full text of the legislation can be found here.

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Permalink: https://raskin.house.gov/2024/12/raskin-salinas-introduce-legislation-to-ban-gambling-on-u-s-elections