Investor advocacy group says existing prediction market restrictions should remain

TORONTO — Investor rights advocate FAIR Canada says the existing restrictions on prediction market contracts should remain unless broader access is shown to benefit investors and serve the public interest.

Prediction market trading lets customers make wagers on the outcome of real-world events, though in Canada it is limited by securities regulators to economic, financial or climate matters.

FAIR Canada CEO Jean-Paul Bureaud said in a news release Thursday that an event contract may legally be considered a derivative, but in substance it can still be a wager. He says if legal form alone justified access to our capital markets, the line between investing and gambling would disappear.

“Regulators have to weigh a much bigger question, not just ‘How do you classify a product?’ But the bigger question is, ‘How does it advance the public interest?'” Bureaud said in an interview.

He added that securities regulators also have a responsibility to make sure that investment products are provided with “reasonable investor protections.”

“They also have to be concerned about how new products impact the marketplace as a whole, including its impact on market integrity issues,” Bureaud said.

Wealthsimple announced in June that it would launch prediction market trading through a new app named Wealthsimple Predict. The launch was made possible through a partnership with U.S.-based Kalshi.

The product lets customers make wagers of $1 or less on the outcome of economic, financial or climate matters like what will happen at the Bank of Canada’s next interest rate announcement or how many major Atlantic hurricanes there will be this year.

However, after the app was launched, users reported finding it displaying stakes in who would become the next James Bond, what the score would be at future football games and who would win the 2028 U.S. presidential election. Clicking on any of the subjects at the time revealed a note from Wealthsimple offering to notify the user if trading becomes available.

The United States allows contracts to be traded on a much wider range of events including sports, entertainment and geopolitical events. It’s led to concerns and even New York moving to sue prediction market Polymarket on Thursday, arguing the platform is an unlicensed gambling operation and calling for a judge to block the company from operating in the state.

“If you look further abroad, many other countries either regulate these types of contracts under their betting laws or as binary options, so they’re far more restrictive. In some ways the U.S. might actually be an outlier as opposed to being reflective of the norm,” Bureaud said.

In Canada, there has been a disagreement among regulators, financial services companies and academics over which legislation should theoretically govern sports and entertainment prediction trading.

At the moment, Canadian users are allowed to put money on economic, financial or climate matters but not sports, politics or entertainment.

The Canadian Securities Administrators said last month that prediction market contracts based on sports and entertainment events should not be regulated within securities and derivatives legislation.

Wealthsimple said in a white paper earlier this year that assigning gaming regulation to contracts, like those spanning sports, while leaving others under securities jurisdiction is “unworkable and does not reflect the structure of these contracts or markets.”

Juanita Leon, a spokesperson for Wealthsimple, said in a statement Thursday that the company welcomes engagement on prediction market regulation that prioritizes education, protections for investors and capital markets as the industry grows.

“Our focus is on building a great trading experience for our clients within the categories we have regulatory approval to offer. We have not asked securities regulators for permission to offer sports or entertainment event contracts on Wealthsimple Predict, and have no intention of doing so,” Wealthsimple said in a statement Thursday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2026.

— With files from the Associated Press.