2 weeks Ago By Tom Ozimek
Robinhood has introduced U.S. presidential election event contracts, allowing retail investors to place bets on the results of the 2024 race for the White House that pits Vice President Kamala Harris against Republican candidate Donald Trump.
There will be two contracts investors can choose from, which are based on a “yes” or “no” answer to what’s known as the event question, which is either whether Harris or Trump will win the 2024 presidential election. The payout for a given contract is either $1 or zero based on which of the two candidates is certified president on Jan. 7, 2025.
The rollout of Robinhood’s election contracts follows a series of regulatory and legal developments in the election betting space. “We’ll watch and hope that the appellate court reverses the lower court’s decision and closes the lid on Pandora’s box,” Hall said. It’s unclear how the appeals court will rule.
In its Oct. 2 decision denying the CFTC’s emergency request to block the contracts, the court acknowledged that the concerns raised by the regulator are “understandable” given the potential impact of the contracts on election integrity, which the court described as “the very linchpin of our democracy.” However, the court found that the statutory text that allows the CFTC to bar such event contracts is “debatable” and that the agency had failed to prove that the risks to election integrity would materialize if Kalshi, and others, are allowed to offer election bets while the appeal plays out.
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