Senate Banking Committee to host Republican-only roundtable on prediction markets

The Senate Banking Committee is planning a Republican-only roundtable focused on prediction markets next week, according to Punchbowl News. The session is scheduled for the week of September 22, though no public agenda or participant list has been released. The timing is hard to ignore. Just days earlier, on September 15, the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act (H.R. 3633) by the slimmest possible margin: a 49-50 vote. That bill would have established a clearer regulatory framework for prediction markets, and its near-miss suggests the issue is very much alive, even if the legislative path forward remains bumpy. A partisan playbook takes shape This isn’t the first time Republicans have convened behind closed doors to talk prediction markets. In June, the House Financial Services Committee held its own GOP-only roundtable that featured executives from Kalshi, Polymarket, and Robinhood. Kalshi, which operates as a CFTC-regulated exchange, and Polymarket, the crypto-native prediction market that surged to prominence during the 2024 US presidential election, are the two platforms most directly affected by whatever framework Congress eventually lands on. Both have become poster chi...