US regulators to shut down political betting site PredictIt
| By Zak Thomas-Akoo
US derivatives regulator the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has withdrawn New Zealand-based online prediction market PredictIt’s “no action” letter, and ordered that all positions should be closed down or liquidated by midnight 15 February 2023.
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Despite a federal ban on online gambling on election results, the CFTC’s no action letter had granted PredictIt an effective licence to operate subject to certain conditions due to PredictIt’s status as a not-for-profit project ran by the Victoria University of Wellington, a New Zealand-based research institution. As a result, it was effectively the only regulated political betting site in the US, as well as the only cross-state betting exchange regulated in the US as others would be banned by the Wire Act.
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