Odaily Planet Daily News: The prediction market Kalshi recently argued in a court filing that while the U.S. CFTC may dislike election betting, only Congress has the authority to ban it. Kalshi is currently embroiled in a legal dispute with the CFTC, which attempted to prevent the prediction market from listing certain event contracts last September that would allow traders to bet on which party will control the House or Senate after the November elections. The regulator claimed that the contracts proposed by Kalshi involve 'gaming' and activities that are 'illegal under state law,' thus 'contrary to the public interest.' Subsequently, Kalshi sued the CFTC in the District of Columbia, accusing the agency of exceeding its statutory authority and violating the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in its attempt to ban election prediction markets. In a recent filing, it stated that the CFTC 'fabricated a blonde definition of “gaming” that only pertains to betting on “competitions” (including elections) without regard to other fortuitous events, which is an arbitrary, outcome-oriented categorization with no legal basis.' The district court sided with Kalshi, with Judge Jia Cobb granting it summary judgment, rejecting the CFTC's interpretation of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) as 'overly broad,' and vacating the CFTC's order to block Kalshi's contracts. After Cobb issued her ruling, the CFTC requested that she stay the order during the appeal, which Cobb denied. When the CFTC subsequently asked the U.S. Federal Appeals Court to temporarily block the election-related activity contracts, the appeals court also rejected this request, unanimously deciding to deny the CFTC's emergency stay motion and arguing that the CFTC had not provided 'specific justification' to conclude that the election contracts could harm the public interest. Now, the CFTC has formally appealed this ruling. This appeal comes as the CFTC attempts to expand the definition of gambling to include 'political competitions,' which, if successful, would effectively ban election betting. In a brief submitted last Friday, Kalshi reiterated the arguments made to the lower court and asked the appeals court to affirm Cobb's ruling. The deadline for the CFTC to respond to Kalshi's brief is December 6. (CoinDesk)