Hi there,
I’ll start with my low this week. There is a trend in the United States concerning betting on prediction market contracts—think Kalshi or Polymarket. People are wagering on everything from sports games to the outcomes of wars, and it has gotten totally out of control.
Currently, it’s being regulated by a federal agency that intended to use these contracts to help insure farmers against things like crop losses and storms. Now that these contracts have evolved to gambling-style bets, this federal regulation is pushing states out of the decision-making process.
As you know, Utah prohibits all forms of gambling, yet these products are putting casinos in the pockets of our young people and posing serious ethical and national security threats.
My high is that, with a bipartisan group of my colleagues, I introduced two pieces of legislation to deal with this. One clarifies that prediction markets offering sports and casino-style contracts are gambling—not financial products—and should be regulated as such. The other prohibits federally elected officials and government employees from using insider information to bet on prediction market contracts.
Both of these are very common-sense, and I’m looking forward to pushing them forward and seeing if we can solve this problem.
Have a good weekend.
Menu