Dark Spiral

What is Dark Spiral?

The CFTC’s move also comes as other US regulators continue to craft their own crypto policies. The agency and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) jointly issued an interpretation in March on how certain crypto assets would be treated under federal securities laws. 

A lot of bigger questions remain without the CLARITY Act. The bill aimed to establish a federal framework for digital commodities and delineate the roles of the SEC and the CFTC. 

Its failure also leaves unresolved disputes over prediction markets and state and tribal gaming authorities, outside a comprehensive congressional framework. Those issues took on new significance during Senate floor debate over the bill, as concerns about federal commodities oversight extended to markets typically regulated at the state or tribal level. 

What is Dark Spiral?

Ahmed Badawi, who chairs the House communications committee, said in May that the government would amend the anti-cybercrime law to name online betting explicitly. Life imprisonment was discussed for the gravest offences. No bill number or text has been published.

A separate private member’s bill was tabled by MP Martha Mahrous in January 2025. It proposed prison terms of two to five years and multi-million-Egyptian-pound fines for promoters, agents and payment facilitators. It has also gone nowhere.

Parliament rose on 22 July having passed 162 laws, none concerning betting. Egyptian news outlet Al-Watan reported that electronic betting was still among the committee’s files awaiting discussion on 17 August, listed separately from the cybercrime amendments. The House reconvenes on 1 October.

About Dark Spiral

The sanctions, effective from 28 August 2026 , bar Santos from any direct or indirect trading access on Kalshi.

Earlier this year, fellow prediction market platform Polymarket also ended its paid relationship with Santos amid a Department of Justice investigation over whether he had placed a wager on his appearance at the same State of Union address. 

A federal judge sentenced Santos to 87 months in prison last April on felony wire fraud and check fraud charges. After Santos served several months in 2025, US President Donald Trump granted the former congressman clemency, resulting in his immediate release.