United States Senator Jeff Merkley is once again leading a group of Democrat lawmakers in calling for a ban on political betting.

On Monday (Aug. 5), Senator Merkley (OR) joined Senators Richard Blumenthal (CT), Chris Van Hollen (MD), Elizabeth Warren (MA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), as well as US Representatives Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Jamie Raskin (MD), and John Sarbanes (MD) in urging for a ban on gambling on US elections.

In a letter to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Rostin Behnam, the lawmakers argue that a ban on election betting is necessary to “prevent Wall Street from setting up massive political betting markets that could influence and interfere with elections and further erode public trust in democracy”.

“As we approach the 2024 election, voters already face a political system that allows the richest individuals and corporations to funnel dark money into campaigns without disclosure. The threat of violence and extremism is high, and the U.S. remains a target for foreign actors who have sought to meddle in our elections,” the lawmakers wrote. 

“The last thing that voters heading to the polls need are bets waged on the outcome of that election. Voters need action, as proposed by the CFTC in this rule, to restore trust. Elections are not a for-profit enterprise. Without this rule, voters will wonder if their vote mattered, and the whether the outcome of the election was influenced by big money bets.”

In August 2023, Senator Merkley and fellow Democrat lawmakers led a successful campaign against a request for approval by the trading platform Kalshi to offer markets on US presidential elections.

They now want the CFTC to enact a proposed rule that would definitively prohibit election betting markets and “prevent the commodification of U.S. elections”.

“The Commission has an important and congressionally mandated role to serve the public interest through financial market oversight. However, the Commission has had to increasingly divert resources away from its primary job regulating markets for goods, services, and other financial matters in order to address a growing number of private companies and other entities seeking to use CFTC regulated markets to directly profit off of U.S. election,” the lawmakers wrote. 

“In 2021, more event contracts were listed for trading than in the prior 15 years combined, and this trend has only continued since. It is critical that the Commission explicitly clarify event contracts that are prohibited under Section 5c(c)(5)(C) of the Commodity Exchange Act.”

“Election gambling fundamentally cheapens the sanctity of our democratic process. Political bets change the motivations behind each vote, replacing political convictions with financial calculations. 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,” the letter concludes. “We urge you to promptly finalize and implement this rule to prevent the commodification of U.S. elections.”