Regulate Prediction Market Partnerships in Political News Coverage

I am writing to urge you to support legislation that would prohibit prediction market companies from partnering with news organizations for political coverage and establish state-level regulatory oversight of these markets. CNN recently announced an exclusive partnership with Kalshi, a prediction market company valued at $11 billion, to integrate real-time betting odds across its television, digital, and social media platforms. CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten will champion this integration in his political reporting. This arrangement allows a gambling platform to shape how millions of Americans receive and interpret political news, despite CNN not paying to license the data. This trend is accelerating. Yahoo Finance partnered with Polymarket last month, while Sports Illustrated and Time both launched prediction market deals with Galactic this year. These partnerships blur the line between journalism and gambling, transforming political coverage into a spectator sport where financial speculation replaces substantive policy analysis. Prediction markets create perverse incentives in our democratic process. When news organizations present betting odds as authoritative data about political outcomes, they risk influencing voter behavior and creating self-fulfilling prophecies. Wealthy individuals and organizations can manipulate these markets to shape public perception of candidate viability. The integration of gambling data into political journalism also normalizes betting on democratic outcomes, treating elections as entertainment rather than civic responsibility. Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour stated the company is eyeing more newsroom partnerships to establish itself as the most trusted predictions market globally. Without intervention, prediction market data will become standard in political coverage, fundamentally altering how Americans engage with democracy. I urge you to introduce legislation that prohibits prediction market companies from partnering with news organizations for political coverage and establishes comprehensive state regulatory frameworks for these markets. Our democratic process should not be commodified by gambling platforms seeking to monetize political uncertainty.