Congress bans betting on terrorism, assassination, elections, and war
H.R. 7840 — Event Contract Enforcement Act · Filed by Blake Moore (R-UT) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 5, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends federal commodity trading law to ban event contracts—bets on real-world occurrences like terrorism, assassination, war, elections, government actions, and illegal activity—from being traded on regulated exchanges. It carves out an exception: states can opt out of the gaming ban if their own law permits it. The bill takes effect 180 days after enactment.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to prohibit a specific class of financial instruments (event contracts on real-world harms and political outcomes) from trading on regulated exchanges. It is a straightforward regulatory restriction, not a subsidy, carve-out, or deregulation.
What the text implies
- The state opt-out for gaming contracts (clause ii) creates a patchwork: traders in states that exempt gaming may still trade on election outcomes, terrorism, or assassination if those states also exempt those categories—the bill does not prevent state-level carve-outs for non-gaming harms.
- The phrase 'other similar activity determined by the Commission, by rule or regulation, to be contrary to the public interest' delegates to the CFTC the power to expand the ban beyond the named categories; this is standard regulatory authority but gives the agency discretion to define 'public interest' without further congressional constraint.
- The 180-day effective date allows existing contracts to wind down or be reclassified before the ban takes effect; traders may front-run the deadline to establish positions.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill prevents financial markets from profiting off terrorism, assassination, war, elections, and government misconduct—removing perverse incentives that could reward or encourage such harms. Citizens benefit from a financial system that does not gamble on their safety, democratic processes, or the integrity of government.
Named in the bill
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Commodity Exchange Act, registered entities (futures exchanges), Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Mar 5, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 5, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Agriculture · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
8 lobbying clients named this bill on 9 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Jun 2026 to Sep 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,110,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 9 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 88% of bills with at least one filing.
Blake Moore, the sponsor, reported $1,475,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Gaming Association — $660,000 on 1 filing
- Intralot. Inc. — $120,000 on 1 filing
- Bally's Corporation — $90,000 on 1 filing
- Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma — $80,000 on 1 filing
- Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians — $80,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 24, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,868 characters) on Aug 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Sep 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 24, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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