I can’t watch a basketball game on TV without seeing ads urging me to place a bet on one app or another. I can’t walk down the street in New York City without seeing ads about the latest lottery jackpot.
And when I sit at my desk in the office, I spend hours studying another type of betting — trading in financial markets, where you can place wagers on companies, bonds, commodities and derivatives of all descriptions.
Yet the most consequential betting of all — wagers on elections in the United States — may soon be shut down by regulators.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has ordered a ban on such betting on the financial exchanges known as prediction markets, where it’s possible to make wagers on who will win the 2024 presidential election and on a host of other matters.
