A U.S. appeals court has temporarily stopped legal betting on November’s election.
On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Jia Cobb allowed Kalshi, a New York-based prediction market, to begin offering what amounts to bets on the outcome of upcoming elections regarding which parties win control of the House and Senate.
This ruling allowed for the only bets on American elections to be legally sanctioned by a U.S. jurisdiction.
However, it didn’t last long after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission appealed Cobb’s decision. Hours after legal betting began, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order to halt the matter until it can rule on it. It is unclear how long it will take for the appeals court to make a decision.
“I Voted” stickers for voters after casting their ballot on Super Tuesday on March 5, 2024, in Charlotte, North Carolina. A U.S. appeals court has temporarily blocked legal betting on November’s election.
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Kalshi’s markets went live soon after Cobb’s ruling on Thursday, and the company accepted an unknown amount of bets, which it called “contracts.”
These contracts varied during the afternoon and early evening hours of Thursday.
At one point in the day, a bet on the Republicans taking control of the Democrat-led Senate was priced at 76 cents. This means if someone made a $100 bet and won, they would get $129. Meanwhile, a bet on the Democrats winning the majority of the Republican-controlled House was priced at 63 cents, meaning that a $100 bet would pay out $154.
Thursday night’s ruling by the appeals court stopped such bets for the time being, and the elections category under which the bets had been posted on the company’s website Thursday was missing Friday afternoon.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has argued that allowing election bets, even for a short time, risked serious harm from people trying to manipulate the election for financial purposes.
Election trust is a major talking point in this election cycle after former President Donald Trump claimed, without evidence, that President Joe Biden‘s 2020 election victory was stolen from him via widespread voter fraud.
Trump and his base have continued to repeat these claims despite Trump being accused by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) of Conspiracy to Defraud the United States, among other charges. The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him and claims the case is politically motivated.
Early voting in Alabama has already started this week as absentee ballots were sent to eligible voters who provided a justification to receive one and next week, several other states will begin to mail out ballots, including the battleground state of Wisconsin.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
