Kalshi Calls Wisconsin Election Betting Ban Voter Suppression
Kalshi attacks a Wisconsin law banning election bets as 'voter suppression'
Wisconsin officials warned voters that betting on elections they participate in could disqualify their ballots, citing a law from 1849. This advisory sparked a fierce backlash from Kalshi, which labeled the restriction as voter suppression and illegal. The conflict highlights the growing tension between state election integrity laws and the rapid expansion of prediction markets, raising concerns about financial incentives influencing democratic outcomes.
There should be absolutely no money involved in the outcome of our democracy.
- recursivedoubts
The complete transformation and legitimization of betting culture in the United States has been surreal to watch. From you had to know a guy to baseball TV announcers giving odds on a home run this inning in less than a decade.
I know this is hard to conceive of, but there was a time when there were no gambling ads on TV! The crazy part? The other half of the ads you see on TV (pharmaceuticals) weren't there either!
- mwigdahl
And to note, the law in question is from the 1800s -- hardly something novel Wisconsin is doing.
- freitasm
Probably because the grift never stops.
- ratelimitsteve
The ability to bet on the outcome of any event is a guarantee of corruption in any event. We've seen the president's teleprompter operator bet on his speeches, we've seen journalists threatened in an attempt to get them to reword an article in order to resolve a bet differently, we've seen several sports betting scandals. What we haven't seen is any indication that this will get better without regulation, and now we're seeing betting markets fight like hell to introduce their rot into the institutions at the bedrock of our society. It needs to stop.
- totallygeeky
It seems entirely fair to me that you can't wager against something that you directly had a hand in the outcome of, even accepting the bunk premise that these wagers are legal in the first place.
So much outrage nowadays is driven by a belief that people are entitled to profit off of every possible thing in life, how dreadful.