Zona de Azar Brazil – American Congress calls for Banning Electoral Betting

Brazil.- August 8, 2024 www.zonadeazar.com Five senators and three representatives of the United States House of Representatives renewed their calls for the commodities regulator to ban betting in the 2024 presidential elections, as they claim that the betting market “could influence and interfere. in elections and, even more, erode public confidence in democracy.”

This statement was made in a letter last Monday (05) and sent to the president of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CNFC), Rostin Benham.

Betting on decentralized platforms

In the letter, the lawmakers highlight that “allowing billionaires to make extraordinary bets while contributing to a specific candidate or party, and allowing insider politicians to bet on elections using non-public information, will further degrade public confidence.” public in the electoral process.”

The letter was signed by the senators:

Jeff Merkley
Richard Blumenthal
Chris Van Hollen
Elizabeth Warren
Sheldon White House

In addition to the representatives:

Jamie Raskin
Juan Sarbanes
Eleanor Holmes Norton

But the interesting thing is that all eight legislators are members of the Democratic Party. Concern about election betting has intensified with the rise in popularity of decentralized prediction platforms like Polymarket.

Polymarket recorded more than $500 million in bets on the “2024 Presidential Election Winner” market and racked up $319.7 million in bets on the “2024 Democratic Candidate” market. Bettors from all over the world can place bets on these markets.

Polymarket, however, faced regulatory problems. In January 2022, the platform was fined $1.4 million by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for offering over 900 event-based binary contracts without obtaining registration.

Current scenario

But with just three months to go before the US presidential election, the betting is still in full swing. Most cryptocurrency betting platforms have Republican candidate Donald Trump as their favorite.

However, Kamala Harris has been closing that gap in recent weeks. But there still hasn’t been any appointment after the candidate named Tim Walz as her vice president. Tim does not have a clear position on crypto assets and this could be good for Donald Trump.

This situation highlights a fundamental conflict between the desire to regulate betting to protect democratic integrity and the growing interest in decentralized prediction markets.

But with the advancement of technology and the popularization of cryptocurrencies, the debate over electoral betting only tends to intensify. However, the final say will fall to regulators and legislators, who must balance innovation and the protection of democratic values.

Edit: @_fonta www.zonadeazar.com