Appeals court puts US election betting on hold | News, Sports, Jobs

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ (AP) — Just hours after they began, legal betting on the outcome of the U.S. congressional elections was suspended by a federal appeals court.

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an order Thursday evening temporarily staying the matter until it can review and decide the case. No timetable was initially given.

The court made its decision at about 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, just hours after a federal judge cleared the way for the only betting on American elections to be legally sanctioned by a U.S. jurisdiction.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb has allowed New York-based startup Kalshi to offer bets on the outcome of the November elections and which parties will gain control of the House of Representatives and Senate.

The company’s markets went live soon after and Kalshi accepted an unknown amount of bets, which it called “Contracts.”

The order issued on Thursday evening put an end to further bets of this kind. What would happen to the bets already placed was still unclear on Friday.

Neither Kalshi nor the commission immediately responded to messages seeking comment on Friday.

The ruling came after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission appealed Cobb's ruling, warning that allowing election betting, even for a short period of time, could result in serious harm from people trying to manipulate the election for financial gain.

Prices for Kalshi's so-called predictive contracts fluctuated during the afternoon and early evening hours they were active on Thursday. A bet on Republicans winning the Senate majority was at one point at 76 cents; a $100 bet brought in $129. A bet on Democrats winning control of the House of Representatives was at 63 cents; a $100 bet brought in $154.

The “Elections” category under which they had been published on Thursday was missing from the company’s website on Friday afternoon.