Senate Banking Committee Democrats are pressing the panel’s leader, Republican Sen. Tim Scott, to organize a formal hearing regarding prediction markets, following a private meeting between Scott and representatives from Kalshi.
Every single Democratic member on the Senate Banking Committee is petitioning GOP Sen. Tim Scott to schedule a congressional session focused on prediction markets, a request issued simultaneously with a closed-door gathering between Scott, other lawmakers, and Kalshi.
Within a correspondence delivered to Scott on Wednesday, the committee’s Democrats emphasized that the panel possesses an essential supervisory obligation concerning prediction markets.
The lawmakers stated that Congress must investigate prediction markets collaboratively in an open session instead of through a private, industry-favoring roundtable restricted to Republicans. The signatories included senators Elizabeth Warren, Catherine Cortez Masto, Jack Reed, Mark Warner, Raphael Warnock, Ruben Gallego, and Angela Alsobrooks.
Senate Banking Committee Republicans convened with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour on Wednesday at 10 a.m., an encounter initially broken by Punchbowl News.
Through a statement provided to The Block, Scott explained that he gathered Senate Banking GOP members alongside Kalshi to gain deeper insight into the prospects and hurdles associated with securities-linked products.
Scott noted during his remarks that the discussion covered repatriating financial innovation, investor utilization patterns, retail safeguarding measures, and legislative oversight priorities. He added that his objective is to cement American leadership in financial technology while safeguarding investors and delivering necessary regulatory certainty.
Kalshi did not provide an immediate reply when asked for comment.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has claimed primary regulatory oversight over prediction markets despite opposition from state authorities claiming jurisdiction over sports wagering instruments. Principal oversight of the CFTC belongs to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees, both of which have evaluated prediction market rules over the preceding year.
Conversely, the Senate Banking Committee supervises the Securities and Exchange Commission and would govern securities-linked prediction instruments. Senate Banking Democrats noted that these tools involve wagers linked to corporate performance metrics, potentially placing them under SEC jurisdiction.
This development unfolds as Cboe Global Markets petitions the SEC for permission to list binary options tethered to corporate earnings announcements, as detailed in a July Bloomberg report.
The Senate Democrats concluded in their letter that given market participants seeking SEC validation for earnings-based options, the entire Senate Banking Committee must exercise its vital supervisory mandate.
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-09-23-senate-banking-democrats-prediction-markets-hearing-kalshi-416193.
