Trump's CTFC Steps In to Defend Kalshi As Utah Brings Criminal Charges Against Execs (gizmodo.com) 55
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has sued Utah to defend its claimed exclusive authority over federally registered prediction markets, as the state files (PDF) 14 criminal charges against Kalshi and its co-founders for allegedly violating anti-gambling laws. The Verge reports: On Wednesday, Utah's Attorney General Derek Brown filed charges against Kalshi co-founders Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, including 12 counts of online gambling promotion, a third-degree felony, one count of a pattern of unlawful activity, a second-degree felony, and general gambling promotion, a Class A misdemeanor. The civil lawsuit calls Kalshi a "back-alley gambling den," and Attorney General Brown didn't mince words in a statement to Gizmodo.
"Gambling is illegal in Utah, whether you place the bet, run the game, or promote it. Calling it a 'prediction market' doesn't change what it is, and being federally registered doesn't put a company above the law," said Brown. "A federal court has already ruled that Utah's gambling laws apply to Kalshi," continued Brown. "Kalshi kept taking bets from Utahns anyway. That is illegal, and we're putting a stop to it."
[...] The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has been jumping into action to protect Kalshi and Polymarket by filing lawsuits against any state that brings charges against the betting sites. President Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., is a paid advisor to both companies. The CFTC announced Wednesday that it was suing the state of Utah as part of its "commitment to maintaining its exclusive jurisdiction over CFTC-registered prediction markets." The argument is that the feds alone should be regulating these sites.
"Utah seeks to shut down prediction markets across a wide variety of markets," CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said in a statement. "Event contracts do not just serve hedging and investment purposes -- they also provide the public with information about the outcome of future events. Congress entrusted the CFTC to be the federal regulator with sole responsibility to oversee these markets," continued Selig. "As I've said before, the CFTC has the expertise and responsibility to defend its exclusive jurisdiction over commodity derivatives, and that's exactly what we'll do."
"Gambling is illegal in Utah, whether you place the bet, run the game, or promote it. Calling it a 'prediction market' doesn't change what it is, and being federally registered doesn't put a company above the law," said Brown. "A federal court has already ruled that Utah's gambling laws apply to Kalshi," continued Brown. "Kalshi kept taking bets from Utahns anyway. That is illegal, and we're putting a stop to it."
[...] The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has been jumping into action to protect Kalshi and Polymarket by filing lawsuits against any state that brings charges against the betting sites. President Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., is a paid advisor to both companies. The CFTC announced Wednesday that it was suing the state of Utah as part of its "commitment to maintaining its exclusive jurisdiction over CFTC-registered prediction markets." The argument is that the feds alone should be regulating these sites.
"Utah seeks to shut down prediction markets across a wide variety of markets," CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said in a statement. "Event contracts do not just serve hedging and investment purposes -- they also provide the public with information about the outcome of future events. Congress entrusted the CFTC to be the federal regulator with sole responsibility to oversee these markets," continued Selig. "As I've said before, the CFTC has the expertise and responsibility to defend its exclusive jurisdiction over commodity derivatives, and that's exactly what we'll do."
Yet gambling on the stock market is just fine (Score:2)
“The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling.”
—Ambrose Bierce from: https://biblioklept.org/2013/0... [biblioklept.org]
Re:Yet gambling on the stock market is just fine (Score:5, Insightful)
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I don't know if it was ever a "net positive", but even assuming it was, that's long gone. Now it is a complex machine tuned to massively siphon wealth off the masses into the hands of insiders and nothing more.
The most recent case, just from the oven:
https://newrepublic.com/post/2... [newrepublic.com]
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https://thehustle.co/hs-fs/hub... [thehustle.co] 1/6 of US households now have over $1M in net worth. There are millions of us all over, living comfortably in retirement, balances go up and down but mainly up. Stick with investing and towards retirement it and your annual growtih will likely dwarf what your salary ever did. Buy and hold low cost index funds, it works.
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People say the darndest things.
It's pretty easy to calculate the expected return of the stock market over any period of time you desire. It's positive. Still. When that changes in the short term we run around screaming our heads off. If it ever changes long term we're fucked.
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The return of the stock market since the early 1980s is precisely equal to the increase in government debt, yes.
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"People say the darnest things."
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and they turn out to be right.
You aren't gambling on the stock market (Score:2)
That's not gambling. You don't get paid based on the outcome. You get paid based on the relative value of the company.
Now if that system isn't working very well for you no shit, we have been deregulating markets for the last 50 years what the fuck did you expect? But that's not a problem with the underlining
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You get paid based on the relative value of the company.
Oh please, the peddlers get paid based on the credibility of the bullshit a peddler can project to make money transfer from the marks to the management.
Nothing in the most highly valued companies in the world is even remotely related to their "value", and the fact that a comment can wipe a medium nation's GDP in a minute shows this ain't real value by any known definition.
Neither value in use, nor value in exchange, to use the proper leftist vocabulary ;)
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If you had learned about economics, you might have learned about "dividends" and "regulations based on rule of law."
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I see "rule of law" practiced by trumpistan every day.
I think it is the funniest joke since Mills wrote that funny treatise, "The Power Elite".
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What bad can I say about Xi?
He's the best tool the Western civilization has to stop China from taking over.
You should cherish him, think where China could have been with someone like FDR at the helm instead.
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Also, kudos to you for the attempt at dehumanization, you're a great asset to the Aryan race.
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Now say something bad about Xi Jinping. You can't do it. You are a slave, not human.
Fuck Xi Jinping. See? Not difficult at all.
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Most modern trading of investments in the stock market is gambling; however, the purpose and function of the stock markets is to enable investment in businesses.
The prediction markets run by Kalshi, and Polymarket, etc. have the purpose and function of gambling. The cited "wisdom of the crowd" is a second order effect.
That does not mean that gambling is bad, nor that gambling on the stock market is good. It is simply a distinction of intent and purpose.
Re:Yet gambling on the stock market is just fine (Score:5, Informative)
No it's not. The semantic distinction is subtle, but significant:
1. Gambling is when you purchase a "chance to play".
2. Investing is when you purchase a legal ownership stake of a legal business.
That is THE difference. It is true that both actions involve risk-taking, and making guesses about the future. But "risk taking and making guesses about the future" is not the key element to the definition of "gambling" in this context. The act of purchasing a chance to play and nothing else is what makes it "gambling." The act of purchasing an ownership stake in a real business is what makes it investing.
A failure to understand this distinction is one thing that can and does keep people trapped in poverty.
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Imagine the outrage if someone poor who plays pokies/FOBTs/One Armed Bandits expected the government to pick up the bill for his bad gambling choices.
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The world is a complicated place. Broad categories like the ones I gave will cover a lot of common things, but can't cover everything. Nothing is black-and-white, there are always shades of gray.
Futures and Options qualify as "derivatives" from real assets. They DO sit in a middle ground so they get classified as "speculation" which isn't quite investing and isn't quite gambling. Most of the time for most people, it doesn't matter. Investing is how people come to own the means of production, which is a
Too obvious (Score:5, Insightful)
The corruption is just too obvious here, it cannot be anything but an attack on our financial systems designed to cause delay and disarray.
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The corruption is just too obvious here, it cannot be anything but an attack on our financial systems designed to cause delay and disarray.
This and the contagion of the Cryptocurrency markets which I can now buy from my phone with US$, but may not be able to sell and get the US$.
I do not "trust the code" that I cannot audit. Particularly, if it's funded by shell corporations outside legal jurisdiction. At least the FDIC can protect me from US bank scammers.
At this rate even the "THE ONLY WINNING MOVE IS NOT TO PLAY" will not matter as Casino Capitalism contaminates the previously somewhat robust US financial system.
Re:Too obvious (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah, I fully expect that Trump - and especially his family members is profiting on these platforms by leveraging their inside knowledge about events for which the timing is under Trump's own control.
Re:Too obvious (Score:5, Informative)
Kalshi hired Trump Jr. as a strategic advisor earlier this year.
We can all guess why.
It's starting to be if it's worse if a party (CCP) does it, or if the leader's family does it. After all, the top Chinese companies have a CCP member in an executive level position. The top US companies have a Trump family member doing the same thing.
Orange pedophile (Score:5, Insightful)
I bring it up because dear God this administration is corrupt and in light of the subject of this comment what the hell was anyone expecting?
I think the real problem is about 25% of the population of any given country or dyed in the wool assholes.
From there all you have to do is push people to enough desperation that their brain stop working right. People under enormous amounts of pressure don't suddenly get better or smarter. They make bad decisions and they make more of them.
Like believing a famous pedophile who bankrupts everything he touches is somehow going to reduce the cost of groceries. Somebody who can think straight knows better than that.
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their brain stop working right.
All it took for that to happen to you was a clown with an orange face.
didn't they advertise during the world series? (Score:2)
they admitted themselves!
"Event contracts do not just serve hedging and investment purposes -- they also provide the public with information about the outcome of future events."
what a bunch of bullshit...
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I agree wholeheartedly.
BTW, what do you disagree with? Me or the quote?
Strange bedfellows (Score:1)
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They’re all hardcore republicans. They’ll fall in line with new orders tomorrow.
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That's not how mormons work. I'm an atheist raised in a mostly mormon community. You're made by apple, they're made by the book of mormon. Entirely different worlds. You are the scientology to their islam. Prophet has a new revelation, they get a new commandment. The revelation can be anything the prophet decides it is, even if it's incredibly stupid, like magic underwear. You drink coffee only if it comes in a container with an apple logo, Mitt Romney only drinks orange juice. If anything, the prophet tell
Re:Strange bedfellows (Score:4, Informative)
If there was a coherent point in that, I missed it.
Re: Strange bedfellows (Score:2)
There's a lot of Mormon specific lore in there that most people aren't aware of. Read the last sentence. If you don't know what I mean by prophet:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: Strange bedfellows (Score:2)
How often does a Jewish prophet come around and make changes to what counts as a kippah?
Perhaps you should consult the Book of Abraham.
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If there is a story about New York, people don't start chanting "Jews in dreadlocks!" If there is a story about Pennsylvania, people don't start chanting "Buggies and Bonnets!"
Percentage of population of area:
* Mormons in Utah: 42%
* Catholic in USA: 20%
* Jewish in NYC: 12%
* Amish in PA: 0.74%
Lemme fix that title (Score:5, Informative)
This is how ... (Score:4, Informative)
It's like me (and all your other neighbors) buying fire insurance on your house. When there's more money to be made by your house burning down, the invisible hand of the market moves so as to make that happen.
Nothing to see here (Score:4, Funny)
If you really consider the facts and you love the orange Jesus then you know in your heart and your Chinese made rightwing political merch that Kalshi execs are innocent.
If they will be tried in a court of justice they will be found innocent so what's the point of even charging them?! Trump admins see this unnecessary bureaucracy and will rightly dismiss it.
BTW, Kalshi has odds on this, any takers?
Re:Nothing to see here (Score:5, Funny)
BTW, Kalshi has odds on this, any takers?
A mysterious account with the username "DJT" has placed an enormous bet on the charges being dropped.
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Mod parent funnier, though I think the real target is elsewhere. What if the Xi could crash the American stock market (to celebrate the election?) and buy up enough shares to control TSMC when the price drops? How to conquer Taiwan without even invading?
Not just TSMC, but that's the juiciest target. The real key to such an attack would be how many shares in which companies are linked to automated sell orders when their prices fall to trigger levels...
See mom, i'm not gambling, I'm investing (Score:3)
That's right my bet that the ND quarterback will get sacked 3 times in the next game is an important part of the global marketplace and needed to price in this factor to the economy.
Follow the money .. (Score:2)
Sequoia Capital: Venture capital
Baillie Gifford: Investment management
Stripes: Growth equity
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z): Venture capital
Coatue: Technology investment and hedge fund
Layer Global: Investment firm
Morgan Stanley Investment Management: Financial asset management
Sequoia Global Equities: Public-market investment arm
CapitalG: Alphabet's growth investment fund
Hudson River Trading: Quantitative trading firm
Balyasny Asset Manage
This shit used to be the Vegas meme (Score:2)
Like...literally.
The only information this provides is how fucked we are. I think trying to defend the activity as providing valuable information should be grounds for disqualification from having an opinion about anything.