Contract market KalshiEx provided various opportunities for election betting, including betting on the Electoral College margins, popular vote and overall winner. While the company’s CEO, Tarek Mansour, claims the contracts were never meant to influence the elections themselves, the opportunity to bet on elections raises ethical concerns.
The contracts were added to Kalshi’s platform after the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of the company on Oct. 2. In light of the ethical concerns regarding betting on political elections, the Commodity Futures Trading Committee sued Kalshi to hold it accountable for the effects of its actions that it may not have accounted for.
However, the appeals court ruling struck down the CFTC’s injunction that prevented Kalshi from allowing bets to be placed on Congressional elections.
More than $3 million has been wagered in political contracts on the site, with a majority of the money being placed on whether Republican candidate Donald Trump or Democratic candidate Kamala Harris would win the election.
Updates to the wagers were broadcasted in various advertisements for Kalshi around New York City in the weeks leading up to the election on Nov. 5.
U.S. elections, particularly the presidential election, have outcomes that hold serious implications for every American. To give Americans the opportunity to bet on the 2024 elections the way they would an NFL game appears to discredit the honor and seriousness with which elections should be approached.
Additionally, although the company claims it did not intend for its platform to be used to influence elections, the opportunity to bet on the election raised concerns for the influence it may have, especially with its persistent marketing throughout NYC.
Some viewers may have seen the wager updates and misread them as if they were polling support for both candidates, instead of measuring the prediction of who will win. Even if interpreted correctly, viewers may correlate the wagers with the candidate’s aptitude and voter popularity.
While Kalshi’s decision to include political contracts on its platform is currently in good legal standing, the company should have considered the ethical implications before making it available and widely advertised.
