Donald Trump Jr., son of the president-elect, has linked up with online betting market Kalshi, which broke new legal ground last year in becoming the first U.S. market to allow largely unrestricted gambling on election outcomes.
Mr. Trump announced his work with Kalshi on social media Monday, saying he will work as a strategic adviser.
“The Kalshi team has worked hard, sued the Biden administration, and achieved the impossible feat of becoming the first and only legal prediction market in the US. I’m excited to be a part of what they’re building,” he said.
He said he was convinced that Kalshi was worth his time as he sat watching the results come in on Election Day last year. He said “biased” news outlets were calling the race a toss-up, but the betting on Kalshi had swung to his father “hours ahead of the fake news media.”
Mr. Trump did not say what his duties for the company would entail.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the hiring, said Kalshi has hired Mr. Trump Jr. to offer advice on new partnerships and expanding its audience.
Mr. Trump does not plan to join his father’s administration. He is part of the Trump Organization and serves on the board of Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs the social media platform Truth Social.
He has also signed on with 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm that focuses on conservative causes.
Kalshi is a “prediction market,” which means it takes bets on how events will play out.
The firm made waves as it fought the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over its desire to offer bets on the outcome of political races.
The CFTC said that kind of betting risked corrupting elections and would fuel the spread of misinformation as people sought to manipulate the betting market.
But Kalshi argued — and federal courts agreed — that the CFTC didn’t have the power to shut down Kalshi without going through a full rule-making process.
The result was that Kalshi was up and running with bets on the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. And while polls suggested a tight race, Kalshi’s odds, based on betting, consistently put Mr. Trump as the slight favorite in the weeks before the election.
Kalshi said betting on elections allows people to hedge risks based on the outcomes.
On its website, Kalshi is currently promoting bets on who will receive a pardon from President Biden as he walks out the door, whether President-elect Donald Trump will manage to buy part of Greenland and how many people who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol will be pardoned.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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