What are the odds on blatant hypocrisy from a retired member of Congress?
Former Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln, who helped write legislation giving federal regulators authority to crack down on gambling through financial markets, is now lobbying for prediction market giant Kalshi — which has paid her firm $480,000 since 2024, according to a report.
During her time in office, the Arkansas pol warned that sports event contracts served no genuine commercial purpose. Now she argues that the same types of wagers offer legitimate financial benefits, Ars Technica reported.
The reversal comes amid a nationwide legal battle over whether Kalshi and rival Polymarket can offer sports wagers under federal financial regulations without complying with state gambling laws — a dispute that could reach the Supreme Court.
As chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee in 2010, Lincoln helped write provisions of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law giving the Commodity Futures Trading Commission authority to prohibit certain event contracts deemed contrary to the public interest. The measure passed.
In a July exchange with the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Lincoln singled out proposed wagers tied to the Super Bowl, Kentucky Derby and Masters golf tournament as examples of contracts that could be prohibited.
“These types of contracts would not serve any real commercial purpose,” Lincoln told fellow lawmakers.
“Rather, they would be used solely for gambling.”
Kalshi began offering sports event contracts in January 2025, months after Lincoln’s lobbying firm signed on to represent the company.
Lincoln has also urged the CFTC to assert exclusive federal authority over prediction markets, opposing efforts by states to regulate sports-event contracts under their gambling laws.
In comments submitted to the CFTC this year, Lincoln argued that sporting events “have strong commercial value because they have major impacts on advertising, apparel sales and the hospitality industry to name a few.”
She also urged regulators to let “markets determine what contracts have value and those that do not.”
In August 2024, however, Lincoln argued that sports results lacked the significant economic consequences associated with major elections and other events.
In a letter that month opposing a Biden administration proposal to expand restrictions on event contracts, Lincoln argued that regulators should distinguish recreational sports gambling from financial contracts serving legitimate economic purposes.
“We also believed that our futures markets are not meant for gambling, and so we also gave the government the authority to prohibit gambling contracts about games like the Super Bowl, the Kentucky Derby, and the Masters Tournament,” she wrote at the time.
After Kalshi began offering sports-event contracts in January 2025, Lincoln urged the CFTC not to ban them.
Lincoln Policy Group defended her work for Kalshi in a statement to Ars Technica.
“The firm’s current work reflects her view that properly regulated prediction markets can serve legitimate financial purposes, including contracts on sporting event outcomes, which are increasingly economically significant to a variety of stakeholders,” the firm said.
The lobbying firm also touted Kalshi’s consumer safeguards, arguing that its federal oversight provides protections unavailable on unregulated offshore platforms.
Kalshi declined to comment on Lincoln’s reversal but separately defended its sports event contracts.
“Organizations face business exposure to sporting events every day — from apparel companies and advertisers to bars and hotels,” a company spokesperson told The Post.
“Kalshi offers liquid, transparent markets where any organization can hedge the risks that hit its bottom line — a fundamental shift in how businesses large and small protect themselves,” a Kalshi rep added.
The Post has sought comment from Lincoln Policy Group.
