A startup company began accepting bets on the outcome of November’s congressional elections on Thursday after a judge refused to stop the company from doing so.

The ruling by US District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington allowed the only betting on US elections legally approved by an American jurisdiction.

This allowed the New York-based Kalshi organization, at least temporarily, to offer prediction contracts – essentially yes-or-no bets – on which party would win control of the Senate and House of Representatives in November.

The company and its lawyer did not respond to requests for comment, but within 90 minutes of the judge’s decision, the bets were advertised on the company’s website. Previously, the site had said they would be “available soon.”

It is not clear how long such bets will be possible; the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which banned the company from offering such bets last year, announced it would appeal the ruling as soon as possible.

Comparing his client to foreign companies that accept bets from American customers on U.S. elections without the approval of the U.S. government, Roth says Kalshi is trying to do things the right way, within the framework of government regulation.

“They have invested significant amounts in these markets,” he said during Thursday’s hearing. “They have spent millions of dollars. It would be perverse if all of these investments went up in smoke.”

But Raagnee Beri, a lawyer for the commission, said allowing such betting could lead to malicious activities aimed at influencing the outcome of the elections and undermining the public’s already fragile confidence in the electoral process.

“These contracts would provide market participants with a $100 million incentive to influence the market on the election,” she said. “There is a very serious threat to the public interest.”

She used the analogy of someone who has taken an investment position in corn commodities.

“Someone is spreading false information about a drought, that a drought is coming,” she said. “That could affect the market and the price of corn. The same thing could happen here. The commission does not have to endure the flood before building a dam.”

Thursday’s ruling will not be the last word in the case. The commission announced that it would file an expedited appeal in a district court in Washington DC and asked the judge to stay her ruling for 24 hours. But the judge refused, so the company will not be banned from offering election betting, at least in the near future.

The company already offers yes-or-no positions on political issues, including whether there will be a government shutdown this year, whether a new Supreme Court justice will be confirmed this year and whether President Joe Biden’s approval ratings will be above or below a certain level by the end of the year.

Kalshi betting is technically not the first to be offered legally on U.S. elections. West Virginia allowed such betting for one hour in April 2020 before changing its decision and canceling those betting markets, deciding it had not done the necessary research beforehand.