Can Regulators Get a Grip on Prediction Markets?

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Luke Vargas (0:09)

Democrat Graham Platner coasts to victory in Maine, teeing up a crucial Senate contest against Susan Collins. Plus, GM follows Ford with a pivot into energy storage, and regulators try to get a grip on prediction markets.

Alexander Osipovich (0:24)

The CFTC is going to take a pretty hard line on contracts on war, terrorism, or assassination, because the perverse incentives that those could create.

Luke Vargas (0:34)

It's Wednesday, June 10th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving our world today. We begin in Maine, where Democrats have selected political newcomer Graham Platner as their nominee to take on Republican Senator Susan Collins in November.

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Luke Vargas (1:06)

Our DC coverage chief, Damian Paletta, says that Democratic leadership now needs to weigh whether Platner's populist appeal outweighs controversies surrounding his social media posts and relationships with women. Graham Platner's victory Tuesday night in Maine is just the beginning for him. Now he has to take on Susan Collins, one of the most unbeatable Republicans on the planet, and campaign against her for five months. One of the big questions Democrats are going to have to face is whether to pour a lot of money into Maine to help Platner beat Collins, or they might decide that that money is better spent in places like Texas or Iowa, where they have other candidates they could try to lift and leapfrog over Republicans there. Democrats need to pick up four seats on net to win control of the Senate. Usually that's a tall order, but this is the kind of year where anything could happen. If Democrats sense that it might be a way of election, and they think they're going to win the House, there's maybe a scenario where they could sweep the Senate too. So Democrats can have to make a decision about where to really push their chips, and it's likely that Maine's going to be getting a lot of attention from both parties in the weeks and months to come. In other primary results, former Fox News host Steve Hilden has advanced to the general election battle to succeed California Governor Gavin Newsom in November. He'll face former Health and Human Services Secretary Democrat Javier Becerra.

And Congresswoman Nancy Mace has been knocked out of the race to be South Carolina's next governor. The one-time rising star in the Republican Party came in fifth place behind Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evitt, who was endorsed by President Trump, and State Attorney General Alan Wilson, who will face each other in a runoff later this month. Back in Washington, a $70 billion immigration enforcement bill is heading to President Trump's desk after its narrow passage in the House yesterday. The vote ends months of debate that began in January when Democrats refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security after the death of two American citizens in immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota. The bill heading to Trump's desk notably doesn't contain an almost $2 billion anti-weaponization fund to compensate those who claimed they were mistreated by the government, which the Senate had included in their version of the bill passed last week.

The US has launched military strikes against Iran in retaliation for the downing of a US Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. The strikes, which lasted for several hours, were directed by President Trump and were described as being carried out in self-defense. In retaliation, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a drone attack on the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.

And in Taiwan, the Islands Army has for the first time fired US missile launchers into waters directly facing China. The drills were part of a two-day military exercise the Taiwanese Army said is aimed at making its training more realistic. The strategic site of the test has been regarded as a potential landing point for invading Chinese forces. China didn't immediately comment on the exercises.

Coming up, regulators are proposing broad new rules to govern rapidly growing prediction markets. We've got that exclusive story and more after the break.

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