"Things were going okay before the election contracts, but since we put them on the platform there's been a lot more interest," Sanders said. The election contracts on each site are binary, and they pay out $1 if the correct outcome is chosen and $0 for the incorrect outcome. A fifth arena, Polymarket, is a blockchain-based prediction platform that is not open to U.S. customers. If they prove to be accurate over time, the prediction markets may also serve non-traders such as consultants and fundraisers who want to glean more insight into the election. Concerns More ominously, critics of the election markets have raised alarm that they could be moved by one or two big traders for possibly nefarious purposes.

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Persons: politicos, Kalshi, Steven Sanders, Sanders, John Phillips, Phillips, Tarek Mansour, Bob Elliott, Ray, Elliott, Polymarket, Nikki Haley, Michelle Obama, Matt Thompson, Thompson, Koleman Strumpf, Cantrell Dumas, Dumas, PredictIt's Phillips, Strumpf, Mansour, We've Organizations: Wall, Interactive, Futures Trading Commission, CFTC, Kalshi, Funds, Bridgewater Associates, South Carolina Gov, Republican, Little Harbor Advisors, Wake Forest University, Better, CNBC, Wake Locations: Iowa, Winston, Salem, N.C, Susquehanna