Kalshi Debuts 'Fair Markets' Lobby Group as Congress Opens Insider Trading Probe

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In brief - Kalshi has unveiled Americans for Fair Markets (AFM), a "well-capitalized" advocacy group designed to lobby Capitol Hill. - AFM has tapped Taylor Budowich, a prominent former White House communications staffer and pro-Trump Super PAC leader. - The group's debut comes immediately after House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) launched insider trading investigations. Kalshi unveiled an advocacy group on Friday to help shape policymakers’ perception of prediction markets, billing the move as a way to level the playing field against sportsbooks and casinos. Americans for Fair Markets (AFM) will actively combat “interests that are focused on protecting their monopolies and seeding lies,” Kalshi said in a blog post, highlighting the organization’s focus on legislation that supports innovation, market integrity, and consumer protection. Kalshi said the group has tapped Taylor Budowich, a former senior White House staffer who resigned in September, to serve as a strategic advisor. The longtime aide previously helped lead communications for the White House and a pro-Trump super PAC. The organization's website borrows its color scheme from Kalshi’s logo, but Americans for Fair Markets has other members, a spokesperson told Decrypt. They declined to say how much funding the organization has received, but they described the group as “well capitalized.” Americans for Fair Markets’ debut underscores Kalshi’s high-stakes efforts to differentiate itself from chief rival Polymarket and traditional betting platforms on Capitol Hill as prediction markets face intensifying scrutiny from lawmakers over their potential to enrich insiders. On Friday, for example, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) announced investigations into insider trading on Polymarket and Kalshi. The lawmaker referenced suspicious bets on military actions tied to Venezuela and Iran, which have motivated arrests in the U.S. and Israel in recent months. Although both platforms have recently touted beefed-up safeguards, Kalshi has been vocal about its status as a federally regulated exchange under the CFTC. Polymarket has a regulated platform in the U.S. as well, but a majority of its bets are made on its international counterpart. “A handful of legislators and a gaming lobby want to ban prediction markets outright,” AFM’s website says. “It would push them offshore—onto unregulated platforms with no identity verification, no consumer protections, no insider trading rules, and no cop on the beat.” But the gaming lobby claims it’s the prediction platforms that are actually doing the deceiving, a stance American Gaming Association President and CEO Bill Miller made clear during testimony before Congress on Wednesday. “These so-called prediction markets are deceptively calling sports betting financial contracts and investing," he said. “Despite messaging designed to beguile policymakers and the public, they are increasingly being exposed as backdoor sports-betting operations.”

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