Let Candidates Place Bets on Themselves — at Least Sometimes

As a law professor and sometime libertarian, I’m of three minds about news that the prediction-market platform Kalshi has banned three candidates for public office for placing bets on their own races.

My first thought is purely libertarian: Kalshi is a private entity, free to set its own rules and do business or not with whomever it pleases, provided that it avoids significant harm to others. If the candidates violated the terms of service, that’s their own fault for not reading the fine print.