Nadex Denied Ability to Offer Futures Betting on President Obama

While you can still bet on the US Presidential race and Barack Obama’s odds to be re-elected at online gambling sites the likes of Sportsbook.com, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission shot down a proposal by the North American Derivatives Exchange (NADEX) to offer options contracts on the US Presidential election, claiming such “gaming” was not in the public interest. 

Nadex self-certified the contracts in December and the CFTC conducted a 90-day review of the derivatives starting on Jan 3, 2012.

Tim McDermott, General Counsel for the Chicago-based exchange, expressed disappointment at the decision.

"We felt strongly that these products met all legal and regulatory criteria for listing, and that the public would benefit from having these products traded on a well-regulated exchange, rather than an unregulated offshore venue as currently is the case," he said in a statement.

- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com