Trading application robinhood is the latest platform that allows traders to bet on elections as well. The move follows a recent court ruling that legalized election betting in the US

Starting Monday, users who apply and meet the criteria can trade a Kamala Harris or Donald Trump event contract.

An event contract is an agreement on the probability that an event will have a certain outcome, such as a sports game or, in this case, a presidential election.

You put a monetary value on an outcome before it happens, the value of each outcome fluctuates based on market sentiment, and you get money from a contract if it happens, if it doesn’t, it’s worth zero dollars. It’s like investing in the victory of one side or the other.

Robinhood sees this as an opportunity for investors to get more involved in the election, saying in a statement: “We believe event contracts give people a tool to engage in real-time decision-making.”

Earlier this month, a decision by the US Court of Appeals cleared the way for election betting. It dissolved an order that prevented a startup from betting on which political party would end up controlling the House and Senate after the election.

Critics said the ruling would create incentives for election interference and could open the door to trouble as we approach Nov. 5.

One of those critics is Sen. Jeff Merkley, who has spoken out against betting on the September election.

“Do you want to be able to have people bet on the outcome of an election and spend huge sums of money smearing the candidate they want to lose, corrupting the election from the vision of moving our country forward into a simple game-playing exercise about enriching those who can’t? only huge bets, but can influence the outcome of these bets. Absolutely not, that’s why the law was written that way,” Merkley said.

However, Wall Street seems to like the idea. Shares in Robin Hood rose 3% after the announcement aired.

Robin Hood says it will roll out these contracts to a limited number of customers – they must be US citizens.

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