Campaign for Accountability Asks CFTC to Reject Kalshi Proposal Allowing Betting on US Elections
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 24, 2023
Contact: Michael Clauw, mclauw@campaignforaccountability.org, 202.780.5750
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Campaign for Accountability (CfA) submitted a comment to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) asking it to reject betting company KalshiEX, LLC’s proposal to allow event contracts based on the result of US elections. CfA Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith wrote, in part:
“As an organization dedicated to exposing misconduct in public life, Campaign for Accountability has a great deal of experience examining situations where financial incentives promote behavior contrary to the public good. We fear that giving a green light to betting on the outcome of U.S. elections would be one of these situations.
Currently, the people most incentivized to advocate for a certain election outcome are the citizens that make up that election’s constituency – at least, that is how it should be. In recent years, we have seen foreign actors stage large-scale attempts to influence the outcomes of U.S. elections when they feel that one outcome may better serve their own interests. We’ve also seen dark money operations overwhelm smaller races with massive contributions that weaken the power of individual constituents.
While we should work to minimize these outside influences, they can at least be partially mitigated through an understanding of the platforms and policies that special interests are attempting to shape via their preferred candidate. In contrast, individuals allowed to gamble on election outcomes would be incentivized to influence races without any consideration of what officials will do once elected. While this incentive does not make American citizens worse off by necessity, it promotes the idea of “electoral victory as end result” that undoubtably draws us away from the aspirations of representative democracy.”
See other comments on the proposal.
Campaign for Accountability is a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog organization that uses research, litigation, and aggressive communications to expose misconduct and malfeasance in public life and hold those who act at the expense of the public good accountable for their actions.