A new opportunity has emerged for individuals looking to engage more actively in this fall’s Congressional elections: they can now place bets on the outcomes. Recently, a startup company has initiated accepting bets on the November Congressional elections following a judge’s decision to allow them to proceed. U.S. District Court Judge Jia Cobb in Washington ruled in favor of permitting the only legally sanctioned bets on U.S. elections by an American jurisdiction. This ruling temporarily allows New York-based Kalshi to provide prediction contracts, which are essentially yes-or-no bets, on which party will secure control of the Senate and the House in November. The company, as well as their legal representative, remained silent when requested for comments, and shortly after the judge’s decision, the bets were promoted on the company’s website. Previously, the website had indicated the bets were “coming soon.”

The duration of this type of betting remains uncertain; however, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which had previously prohibited the company from offering such bets, stated that they would promptly appeal the ruling. Differentiating his client from foreign companies that accept bets from American clients on U.S. elections without U.S. government endorsement, Roth emphasized that Kalshi aims to operate under government regulation. He highlighted the significant investments made by the company in these markets, stating that it would be detrimental if all those investments were to go to waste. Conversely, Raagnee Beri, an attorney representing the commission, expressed concerns that allowing such bets could encourage malicious activities aimed at manipulating election outcomes and further erode public trust in the voting process.

Thursday’s ruling is not conclusive in this case, as the commission intends to urgently appeal to a Washington D.C. circuit court and requested the judge to suspend her ruling for 24 hours. Nonetheless, the judge declined this request, thereby currently allowing the company to offer election bets. Additionally, Kalshi already provides positions on political topics, such as the likelihood of a government shutdown occurring this year, the confirmation of a new Supreme Court justice this year, and whether President Joe Biden’s approval rating will surpass or fall below a certain level by year-end. While these Kalshi bets are technically not the first to be legally available on U.S. elections, as West Virginia briefly permitted such bets in April 2020 before retracting them, stating that proper research was not conducted beforehand.