Kalshi election betting offering on pause following latest court ruling
Prediction platform dealt a blow by the DC Circuit of Appeals as the Commodity Future Trading Commission’s emergency motion is given the green light
Kalshi has been dealt a significant blow in its hopes to offer election betting after the DC Circuit of Appeals sided with the Commodity Future Trading Commission (CFTC) yesterday, September 12.
The DC Circuit of Appeals backed the CFTC’s emergency motion to delay Kalshi offering election betting contracts for 14 days in a note signed by deputy clerk Laura Morgan.
The order will allow the court “sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motion for stay pending appeal and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion.”
Kalshi will be able to file a response by 6pm local time today, September 13.
Earlier this week, the New York-based prediction market site said the CFTC’s emergency motion was “meritless” and would be “devastating” for Kalshi.
The emergency motion came after a ruling from the District Court of Columbia granted Kalshi the right to offer betting election markets.
That decision meant the court had overturned a September 2023 order that had blocked the firm from allowing election contracts to be traded.
The CFTC’s emergency motion was filed just hours after Judge J. Cobb sided with Kalshi, without giving rationale.
In response to the ruling, Kalshi said: “The delay – which the agency would assuredly try to parlay into another, then another, until it’s too late – would be devastating for Kalshi, which has staked its future on this litigation and these markets.
“The public has already been denied these benefits for over a year while the CFTC’s unlawful order was in place. And with the election now fewer than 60 days away, there has never been a more important time for those benefits to materialize.”
The US presidential election is due to take place on November 5.