Predictions market platform Kalshi announced that Stephanie Cutter, a former Obama administration staffer and co-founder of the communications firm Precision Strategies, will join the company as a policy adviser. Kalshi said Cutter’s hire is part of plans to “deepen its relationships in DC and across the country,” and CEO Tarek Mansour noted her background in government and politics helps “get [the] message to the right people.”
Kalshi already has staff with government ties, including the appointment of Donald Trump Jr. as a strategic adviser in January 2025. The company has faced increasing scrutiny from U.S. state gaming regulators, which have filed lawsuits alleging that event contracts on prediction markets constitute illegal bets.
Under CFTC chair Michael Selig, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has asserted it has “exclusive jurisdiction” over such markets and has filed lawsuits against state regulators. Many Democrats in Congress have also pushed for oversight after citing “suspicious trades” tied to the U.S. invasion of Iran. In response, Kalshi and rival Polymarket announced in March that they would implement guardrails intended to prevent insider trading on their platforms.
Some lawmakers have proposed legislation that could bar politicians from participating in prediction-market bets, but as of Friday none of the bills had been enacted, and the outcomes of several state-level lawsuits remain unresolved.
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