Should the federal government allow widespread gambling on elections?

Of course not.

Along with the risks gambling poses to individuals — risks that are becoming
even greater with the explosion of online betting — gambling on elections could
threaten our democracy itself:

* Gamblers could commit election fraud.

* As bad or even worse, betting could foment widespread distrust in elections
by the mere suspicion that fraud is rampant. (This is what Donald Trump has
done with his Big Lie, and look at what it is doing to our democracy.)

* Candidates could be bribed or intimidated. (Think of the infamous Black Sox
Scandal in baseball or a boxer taking a dive.)

* Artificial intelligence could be exploited to create “deepfake” videos
intended to mislead voters and thereby alter an election for the benefit of
bettors.

* Election officials could be harassed or threatened in attempts to alter
election outcomes. Or they could be falsely accused of wrongdoing by
disgruntled gamblers.

* Political betting could drive even more raw partisanship, with voters paying
even less attention to actual policies.

That’s why gambling on election outcomes has, by and large, been illegal in the
United States.

But a federal appeals court just ruled that a private, for-profit company can
run a nationwide gambling operation that would let Americans bet on the outcome
of elections — including the current presidential race!

Tell federal regulators: [[link removed]]

The last thing our democracy needs is the additional risks that would be all but
inevitable by allowing large-scale gambling on election outcomes. Don’t let this
appeals court ruling be the end of the story. Keep fighting to preserve
longstanding, commonsense rules against betting on elections in the United
States. [[link removed]]

Click to add your name now. [[link removed]]

Thanks for taking action.

For democracy,

- Lisa Gilbert & Robert Weissman, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen


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