Comment Text:
Dear Chairman and Commissioners,
My name is Michael Fidelman, and I'm a trader from Illinois. I've been actively trading on prediction markets like Kalshi for some time now, and Im writing to express my strong support for the proportionate regulation of these markets in response to your Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Prediction Markets (91 FR 12516). I believe these markets provide immense value to individuals like me, businesses, and society as a whole, and I urge the CFTC to craft rules that encourage innovation while addressing specific risks. To illustrate the importance of getting this regulatory framework right, it is useful to contrast prediction markets with the traditional sportsbook model that has dominated much of the space.
Traditional bookmakers rely on centrally set odds rather than competitive price discovery, a structure that is fundamentally un-American in spirit, substituting command-economy style operator control for open market forces.
This lack of competition in pricing allows sportsbooks to maintain artificially wide spreads, driving a persistent transfer of value from retail participants to the house.
Kalshi provides a transparent, market-driven alternative in which liquidity competes directly, resulting in tighter pricing and more efficient outcomes for participants.
As long as event-based trading exists in any form, a competitive, market-based approach is not just more efficientit is the only model that aligns with fair and open price formation.
Sincerely,
Michael Fidelman
