Prediction markets spend millions to influence state, federal governments

Filed 1h ago · Via Stateline · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: White House (Pete Souza) / Maison Blanche (Pete Souza) · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Kalshi, Polymarket and the Coalition for Prediction Markets have spent at least $3 million this year on lobbying and political donations, according to a report from OpenSecrets, as states push back against platforms they say dodge gambling laws. Kalshi alone has hired lobbyists in 41 states and donated to both parties' governors' and attorneys general' associations.

The company insists it's a commodities market, not a sportsbook, and says the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, not the states, should regulate it. That commission currently has four of five seats vacant, hasn't stopped it from suing nine states that tried to step in anyway.

Donald Trump Jr. holds financial stakes in both Kalshi and Polymarket, a detail that sits alongside the administration's efforts to sideline state oversight of the industry. A Roosevelt Institute analyst said the spending reflects a business model that may not survive if it actually has to follow state law.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

When a company spends a million dollars lobbying the agency that's supposed to be deciding whether to regulate it, that's not oversight, that's a fox donating to the henhouse renovation fund. A watchdog with four empty chairs isn't exactly a watchdog, it's a nameplate on an empty room. The fact that the president's own son has money riding on the outcome is the kind of detail a small town would notice even if Washington pretends not to.

Source: Read the original at Stateline → Scored: Scheming Weasel faster · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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