Wall Street-Style Trading on US Elections Inches Ahead at CFTC

American political junkies may get to bet tens of thousands of dollars legally on the outcome of November’s US congressional elections.

After years of refusing to approve derivatives for betting on elections, Washington regulators are privately weighing a plan that could let people place as much as $25,000 on which political party will control the US Congress. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission may begin taking public feedback on the proposal from prediction-market operator Kalshi Inc. as soon as this month, according to people with knowledge the deliberations.

A greenlight for Kalshi, which already offers so-called event contracts that let people ...