Merkley: CFTC Allowing Election Gambling is a Bad Bet for Democracy

Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley today issued the following statement after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) moved to dismiss its appeal against Kalshi Inc., effectively allowing betting on U.S. elections to continue: “Election gambling reduces our democratic process to a horse race for the wealthy and powerful to bet on. The CFTC’s disastrous decision puts billionaire and corporate profits ahead of the core values of our democratic process—that’s a bad bet for democracy. “I’ll never stop fighting to protect the integrity of our votes, and as multi-million-dollar smear campaigns threaten to further destroy our elections, I’ll keep fighting to pass my Ban Gambling on Elections Act .” ###