Kalshi expands election betting options with Senate markets

Kalshi has recently defeated the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in a court saga that sought to prohibit the contract market platform from listing more political prediction markets.

Enjoying legal reprieve, Kalshi has pressed on with expanding the available options its users can now "bet on," adding Electoral College and Senate markets to the list of available markets that can be placed, and effectively making political betting legal in the country, until the CFTC finds a way to block the platform, which it is seeking to enact. An appeal is already underway.

Kalshi continues to expand election markets with more races featured

Previously, the CFTC managed to push for a temporary injunction on Kalshi’s prediction markets that involve political races, but that was overturned by the court, which argued that the platform could continue to accept wagers.

While the CFTC has predicted catastrophic consequences for the outcome of the elections, which are one of the most polarized races in the history of the United States, Kalshi has only collected $7m as of the time of writing.

In contrast, $23.1bn was wagered on Super Bowl LVIII, which has had no bearing on the outcome of the NFL’s biggest game. However, the presidential race outright winner is not the only event now covered by the platform as Kalshi has now expanded with Senate races as well as the Electoral College, which could prove another interesting and tempting prediction market.

Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour has welcomed the opportunity to see the company add to the number and variety of available prediction markets, adding that "everything Kalshi is doing is within the law and regulated."

He also said that he believed the "law is on our [Kalshi’s] side." Naturally, the CFTC objected to the previous court ruling that removed the injunction and allowed Kalshi to continue offering prediction markets, which are essentially betting, according to the watchdog.

In a filing with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the CFTC argued that the platform had gone "full throttle" on political betting, and it would soon be adding more markets.

Sanctity of elections under "zero" threat

There are hundreds of potential races that Kalshi could offer bets on. "Some of these blatantly contradict Kalshi’s own arguments at the Court’s recent hearing — that its contracts are not gaming, because they are based on economically significant events," the CFTC argued in the filing.

Lawmakers from all parties have expressed their concern about political betting undermining the electoral process and its sanctity, but Mansour has brushed away these fears with a claim that there is no evidence to suggest that political contracts do anything to compromise election integrity.

The fight between Kalshi and the CFTC is still ongoing however, as the regulator’s appeal has been fast-tracked by a federal court that will allow the watchdog to argue its case and possibly seek to defeat Kalshi. However, none of this is very likely to happen before the elections on November 2.

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