US senators urge CFTC to finalize ban on election betting

Five United States Senators and three House representatives have renewed calls for the commodities regulator to ban betting on the 2024 presidential election.

They claimed that such markets “could influence and interfere with elections and further erode public trust in democracy” in an Aug. 5 letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair, Rostin Benham.

“Allowing billionaires to wager extraordinary bets while simultaneously contributing to a specific candidate or party, and political insiders to bet on elections using non-public information, will further degrade public trust in the electoral process.”

“We urge you to promptly finalize and implement this rule to prevent the commodification of U.S. elections.”

The letter was signed by Senators Jeff Merkley, Richard Blumenthal, Chris Van Hollen, Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon Whitehouse and Representatives Jamie Raskin, John Sarbanes and Eleanor Holmes Norton.

The lawmakers stressed that elections are not a “for-profit enterprise” as that would cheapen the sanctity of the democratic process.

“Political bets change the motivations behind each vote, replacing political convictions with financial calculations.”

All eight lawmakers are members of the Democratic party.

It comes as decentralized prediction platform Polymarket has seen more than $500 million in bets placed on the “Presidential Election Winner 2024” market, while the “Democratic Nominee 2024” market has tallied $319.7 million in bets.

Punters from all around the world can place bets on these markets.

Polymarket settled a $1.4 million fine with the CFTC in January, 2022, for offering more than 900 event-based binary option event contract markets without obtaining registration.

The US presidential election is now three months away.

Most cryptocurrency betting platforms have Republican candidate Donald Trump as clear favorite to win the US election — however presumptive Democrat candidate Kamala Harris has been closing that gap in recent weeks.