A letter to Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael Selig cites three Polymarket contracts related to a NASA launch, Venezuela and Ukraine.
Six Democratic senators told the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in a previously unreported letter that they have strong concerns about prediction market contracts "that incentivize physical injury or death," saying the contracts "present dangerous national security risks." The senators urged CFTC Chairman Michael Selig in the letter sent Monday to "clearly reiterate that the CFTC will categorically prohibit any contract that resolves upon or closely correlates to an individual's death." The letter, led by Sen. Adam Schiff of California, notes that under federal commodity regulations, the CFTC already "categorically prohibits" contracts that involve or reference terrorism, assassination, war or similar actions. The letter was sent as prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi have become increasingly popular and as questions have been raised about how those markets should be regulated, whether they are contributing to a rise in gambling addiction , and about the risk of people with inside information taking positions on contracts.