Congress bans betting on assassination, war, and death in regulated markets
H.R. 7942 — DEATH BETS Act · Filed by Mike Levin (D-CA) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Mar 16, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends the Commodity Exchange Act to prohibit futures exchanges and clearinghouses from listing or accepting for trading any contracts based on excluded commodities (typically financial indices, currencies, or intangibles) that reference terrorism, assassination, war, death, or similar harms. It bars betting markets on these catastrophic or tragic events.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a straightforward prohibition on listing certain derivative contracts. It does not regulate underlying commodities or ordinary hedging; it bars only speculative instruments tied to catastrophic events (war, assassination, death).
What the text implies
- The phrase 'as determined by the Commission' grants the CFTC discretionary authority to define what counts as 'similar activity' to terrorism, assassination, and war — a potentially broad interpretive power that could expand the prohibition beyond its stated categories.
- Contracts 'that could otherwise be construed as correlating closely to an individual's death' is vague and may capture life-expectancy derivatives, mortality-linked securities, or insurance-linked instruments not obviously intended as 'death bets,' creating compliance uncertainty.
- The bill does not address prediction markets, decentralized exchanges, or offshore venues — only registered U.S. exchanges — so sophisticated traders may migrate to unregulated platforms.
- Excluded commodities are defined in Section 1a(19)(iv) of the CEA (not quoted here); the bill's scope depends entirely on that definition, which may or may not cover all financial indices and intangibles the drafters intended.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill prevents commodification of human tragedy and violence by blocking speculative betting on assassination, war, and death through regulated markets. This protects public dignity and removes perverse financial incentives that could reward or encourage catastrophic harm, while maintaining ordinary commodity and derivatives trading.
Named in the bill
Commodity Exchange Act, CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission), registered entities (futures exchanges, clearinghouses), excluded commodities
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Mar 16, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 16, 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
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $130,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 14 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 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Mike Levin, the sponsor, reported $429,156 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians — $80,000 on 1 filing
- St Regis Mohawk Tribe — $50,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 10, 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 (1,068 characters) on Oct 17, 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 Jun 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 10, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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