‘You can bet on it’: Utah lawmakers form united front in push to ban prediction markets

Key points

• Utah is home to some of the strongest anti-gambling laws in the US, with vehement opposition dating back more than a century.
• But as prediction markets have surged – allowing users to bet on almost anything, from elections to sports to geopolitical events – the state has not escaped the nationwide boom.
• Its Republican leaders are fighting back, setting up a battle between one of the country’s most conservative states and a rapidly growing industry that is embraced by a Republican administration in Washington – and members of the US president’s own family.
• “It’s a unique issue,” Brady Brammer, a Republican state senator in Utah, said.
• “Because you have a lot of very conservative Republicans [in Utah] who are standing up to a conservative administration, essentially without dissent among them.” Prediction markets such as Kalshi – recently valued at $22bn – and Polymarket allow users to “trade” on events from...