Recently, a federal judge briefly stopped a decision that would have let the prediction market platform Kalshi offer betting on US elections. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) asked for this order right away.
On September 9, Judge Jia Cobb issued the temporary administrative stay. This put off the result of her earlier decision, which had let Kalshi list bets linked to the election. The CFTC and Kalshi have set a meeting for September 12 to talk about their different moves.
The case began in November 2023 when Kalshi fought the CFTC’s decision to ban markets for betting on elections. The site was supposed to let people make bets on things like which political party would win the US elections and take control of Congress.
Even though Judge Cobb said on September 6 that these contracts were legal, the CFTC said that this kind of betting could hurt the stability of the market and change how people think about the election. They say that betting odds could change how people vote or the results of elections, which would be unfair to democracy.
The CFTC has asked for a 14-day delay so that they can decide if they want to review the decision. They say that the judge’s decision could cause problems if it is put into action before an appeal is considered. Kalshi’s plans to join the current market for election betting, which is led by the cryptocurrency-based platform Polymarket, have been put on hold because of this action.
The result of the meeting on September 12 will be very important in deciding whether Kalshi can resume its election markets or if the temporary stop will last longer.
