NUMBER OF THE DAY
Gambling on the Presidential Election, by the Numbers
You can’t legally bet on elections in the U.S. — unless it’s on a site like PredictIt
£220 million (or about $284 million). That’s how much money has been wagered on the outcome of the U.S. presidential election on the world’s largest betting exchange, U.K.-based Betfair, as of last Wednesday, according to CNN. That’s more than the wagering on the four most-bet-upon sporting events on Betfair combined.
The U.K. is one of the few countries in the world that allows betting on politics. While legal avenues for betting on sports have opened up in the U.S. in the past few years, allowing the rise of sports betting companies like DraftKings, Americans can’t legally bet on politics.
This wasn’t always the case — up until around 1940, political betting markets thrived in the U.S., serving as important forecasts of election outcomes until the rise of political polling from the likes of Gallup and changes in gambling regulations stamped them out of existence. The only legal way to bet on an election outcome in the U.S. is to do it on a betting platform like PredictIt, run by researchers at the University of Victoria in New Zealand and Aristotle International, a political data company.
