Trump's commodities regulator scraps its proposed ban on betting contracts

On January 29, 2026, the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — the federal agency that regulates derivatives and commodity markets — announced it would abandon a proposed rule that would have banned "event contracts," the financial bets on political and sporting outcomes that prediction markets sell. In place of the ban, Chair Michael Selig said the agency would write new rules permitting the contracts, calling the existing framework one that had "failed market participants." The reversal clears the path for prediction-market operators such as Kalshi and Polymarket.