Yes. PredictIt has traded political contracts continuously since 2014 and is now operated by the nonprofit Prediction Market Research Consortium under CFTC oversight. It also survived a direct CFTC attempt to shut it down in 2022, which a federal court found the agency had not adequately justified.

PredictIt review: Is it legit after the CFTC fight?

Q: How old do I have to be to trade on PredictIt?

You need to be at least 18 in most states to open a PredictIt account, though a handful of jurisdictions set the minimum age at 21.

Q: Can I sell my PredictIt shares before a market resolves?

Yes. PredictIt runs on a continuous double auction, so you can buy or sell shares any time a market is open instead of holding until it settles.

Q: How do PredictIt's fees compare to other prediction markets?

PredictIt's 10% profit fee plus 5% withdrawal fee is steeper than ProphetX's flat 2% commission on net winnings, making PredictIt one of the pricier platforms for active, profitable traders.

Q: Is there a PredictIt promo code?

No. PredictIt doesn't currently run a welcome bonus or promo code for new traders. Check our PredictIt promo code page for the latest offers.

Chris Jonat

Content Manager

PredictIt has run real-money political markets since 2014 and survived a direct attempt by the CFTC to shut it down. This review checks whether PredictIt is still legit, what it costs to trade, and how it holds up against newer, better-funded rivals.

Category	Details
🏛️ Founded / parent company	Launched November 3, 2014, as a research project. Ownership transferred to the nonprofit Prediction Market Research Consortium (PMRC) in July 2025.
📍Headquarters	Washington, DC
🤝 Regulator / licensing body	Operates under a CFTC staff no-action letter, most recently amended July 14, 2025 (Letter No. 25-20).
🌐 Platform type	Political-only prediction market exchange (continuous double auction), not a sportsbook-style platform
🎁 Welcome bonus	None currently offered
⌨️ Promo code	None
💲Minimum first deposit	$10
💰Minimum withdrawal	$10
💸 Trading fees	10% fee on net profit per market, charged at settlement; 5% fee on withdrawals; no deposit fees or per-trade commissions
💳 Deposit methods	Credit or debit card; PayNearMe cash payments (US traders)
🏧 Withdrawal methods	ACH bank transfer or mailed check (international traders can request a wire transfer for an extra $40 fee)
⏱Payout speed	30-day hold from your first deposit before any withdrawal is eligible (60 days for international traders), then roughly a week to arrive
📱Mobile app availability	No dedicated iOS or Android app; the website is mobile-responsive
⚽ Live/in-event trading	No. Contracts settle on real-world political outcomes, not live in-game events
👍Legal age	18+ in most states; 21+ in a handful of jurisdictions
🧑‍💻 Customer support channels	Email support and an online help center; no live chat or published phone line

My take on PredictIt

Chris Jonat, Content Manager

“PredictIt is the elder statesman of political prediction markets. It has more institutional scar tissue than any competitor, having fought the CFTC in court and won, but that history comes with a fee structure and a withdrawal process that feel dated next to the newer exchanges.”

Pros

The longest-running CFTC-sanctioned political prediction market in the US, trading continuously since 2014
Beat a CFTC shutdown order in federal court, winning a stronger no-action letter in 2025
The deepest bench of political contracts anywhere, spanning Congress, cabinet picks, courts, and foreign elections
The per-contract cap quadrupled from $850 to $3,500 in 2025 with no trader limit

Cons

A 10% profit fee and 5% withdrawal fee are steep, plus a 30-day withdrawal hold
No native iOS or Android app and no welcome bonus for new traders

What is PredictIt?

PredictIt is a real-money political prediction market where traders buy and sell shares tied to the outcome of elections, legislative votes, and other political events. Each contract works as a simple yes/no question. Shares trade between $0.01 and $0.99 based on what other traders think the odds are, and a correct share redeems for a flat $1 when the market settles.The platform launched on November 3, 2014, as an academic research project built by Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, with day-to-day operations handled by Aristotle, Inc., the political data firm founded by John Aristotle Phillips. The original pitch to the CFTC was that PredictIt existed to study market-based forecasting, not to run a betting site, which is why the agency granted it a no-action letter instead of requiring a full exchange license.That academic framing nearly ended the platform. In August 2022, the CFTC withdrew its permission and ordered PredictIt to liquidate every open contract by February 2023, arguing the university had drifted from the terms of its original letter. PredictIt sued, and a federal court found the CFTC had acted arbitrarily. By July 2025, the platform had a new deal with a nonprofit called the Prediction Market Research Consortium. The CFTC then raised the amount any single trader can put into a contract from $850 to $3,500. For a platform that spent a year fighting for its survival, that's a meaningfully stronger legal footing than it had going into 2022.

PredictIt welcome bonus

PredictIt does not currently offer a welcome bonus or promo code for new traders, which sets it apart from most other prediction apps on the market today. New accounts still need to clear standard identity verification (basic personal details and a government-issued ID) before funding a wallet, in line with the recordkeeping that PredictIt's CFTC no-action letter requires.That's a genuine gap next to competitors running deposit matches and free-trade credits, though it's also consistent with a platform whose original mandate was academic research rather than customer acquisition.

Why there's no bonus

“No PredictIt promo code is an honest reflection of what the platform is: a research-market survivor, not a growth-stage startup chasing deposits.”

Chris Jonat

Content Manager

Is PredictIt legal in the US?

PredictIt operates under a CFTC staff no-action letter, not a full exchange registration. In practice, that means CFTC staff have agreed not to pursue enforcement action against the platform as long as it stays within specific conditions: contracts limited to political events, a cap on how much any one trader can put into a contract, and cooperation with CFTC oversight. That's a different legal foundation from Polymarket, which is a registered Designated Contract Market (DCM) regulated directly under the Commodity Exchange Act.

PredictIt's regulatory timeline

Because PredictIt only lists political contracts, it has largely sat outside the current wave of state lawsuits targeting sports-focused prediction markets like DraftKings Predictions, several of which argue those platforms' sports contracts amount to unlicensed gambling under state law. That's worth knowing if you're coming to PredictIt from our sports betting content: the legal fight over sports event contracts and the framework covering PredictIt's political markets are two different questions, decided by different courts and different arguments.

Mar 26, 2026

Site redesign launched

PredictIt ships its first major site and mobile-web redesign since the 2025 settlement.

Dec 2025

CFTC grants relief

CFTC grants PredictIt, alongside Polymarket and other platforms, additional no-action relief on certain data-reporting rules.

Jul 14, 2025

Letter amended

CFTC issues an amended no-action letter (Letter No. 25-20), transferring operations to the nonprofit Prediction Market Research Consortium and raising the per-contract cap to $3,500.

Jan 26, 2023

Fifth Circuit injunction

The Fifth Circuit grants an injunction letting PredictIt keep operating while its lawsuit against the CFTC proceeds.

Aug 4, 2022

CFTC orders wind-down

CFTC withdraws its no-action letter and orders all contracts liquidated by February 15, 2023.

Nov 3, 2014

Launches

PredictIt launches.

Oct 2014

No-action letter granted

CFTC grants Victoria University of Wellington a no-action letter to run PredictIt, capping trades at $850 per contract and 5,000 traders per market.

No-action letter vs. DCM

“A no-action letter isn't a stamp of full legitimacy the way a DCM license is. It's the CFTC agreeing to look the other way under specific conditions, and PredictIt has now had to defend that arrangement in court once already.”

Chris Jonat

Content Manager

PredictIt key features

PredictIt's standout feature is its age and its academic governance model. No other major platform has run continuously since 2014, survived a direct CFTC shutdown attempt, and come out the other side with support from named university advisors rather than venture capital.

Markets offered

PredictIt sticks entirely to politics markets. Live markets as of this review include control of the Senate and House after the 2026 midterms, presidential and congressional approval ratings, cabinet and judicial nominations, gubernatorial and mayoral races, and a smaller slate of international markets covering UK and EU politics. There's no sports, crypto, entertainment, or economic-data trading here, which is either a limitation or the point, depending on what you're looking for.

Fees and trading costs

PredictIt charges a 10% fee on net profit per market, deducted automatically when a market settles, and a 5% fee on withdrawals. There's no fee to deposit and no per-trade commission. That combination is one of the higher effective cost structures among regulated prediction markets, since a trader who wins consistently pays both fees on the way out. Most other top prediction markets have lower fee structures, like ProphetX, which has a flat 2% commission on net winnings.

How PredictIt compares

PredictIt's closest points of comparison aren't other political-only markets (there aren't many left), but the broader CFTC-regulated exchanges that now include politics alongside sports and pop culture.

Platform	Promo code	Welcome bonus	Min. deposit	Availability snapshot
PredictIt	No promo code	None	$10	All 50 states; federal no-action letter, not state-by-state licensed
Polymarket	CORG	$50 trading bonus	$10	Available in 48 states + DC; MI and NV excluded
ProphetX	CORG	Trade $50, get $75	$50	Available in 49 states + DC; NV excluded
OG.com	Sign up with our exclusive link	Trade $10, get $10	$10	Available in 49 states + DC; NY excluded

PredictIt deposits and withdrawals

PredictIt funds accounts by credit or debit card, or through PayNearMe for traders who prefer to deposit cash. The minimum deposit is $10, and there's no fee to fund an account.Getting money out is the more involved side of the process. Withdrawals go out by ACH bank transfer or mailed check, carry a 5% processing fee and a $10 minimum, and aren't available until 30 days after your first deposit (60 days, plus a $40 wire fee, for international traders). Funds stay in US dollars throughout; there's no crypto rail and no platform-specific token to convert in or out of.

The 30-day hold, explained

“The 30-day hold is the detail newer traders miss. It's not a withdrawal delay so much as a waiting period baked into the account itself, and it's worth knowing about before you fund anything you might need back quickly.”

Chris Jonat

Content Manager

PredictIt mobile app

PredictIt does not have a dedicated app for iOS or Android. Trading happens entirely through the browser, on desktop or mobile.

The mobile experience

The lack of a native app is one of the more dated aspects of the platform next to app-first competitors, though PredictIt narrowed that gap somewhat with a March 2026 redesign that reworked the mobile site into a single-scroll market layout, simplified the trading buttons, and added a dual odds display showing both implied probability and decimal-style pricing.

On the mobile experience

“A responsive website isn't a substitute for a native app when you're trying to check a market between meetings, but the 2026 redesign at least brought PredictIt's mobile experience into the same decade as its competitors.”

Chris Jonat

Content Manager

PredictIt security and licensing

PredictIt's legal footing runs through its CFTC no-action letter rather than a Designated Contract Market registration, with day-to-day operations now run by the nonprofit Prediction Market Research Consortium. Trader funds are required to be held separately from operating funds under the conditions of that letter, similar in spirit to the segregated-account rules that apply to registered exchanges, though PredictIt doesn't publish the same level of granular detail on its security stack, such as specific encryption standards, that a fully registered DCM typically discloses.Identity verification is required before you can deposit, and PredictIt states that it doesn't store your card details. We found no major, publicly disclosed security incidents involving the platform as of September 2026.

The regulatory trade-off

“The no-action framework gives PredictIt a legal way to operate, but it's worth being clear-eyed that it isn't the same regulatory bar as a full exchange license. That's the trade-off for trading on the platform with the longest track record in the category.”

Chris Jonat

Content Manager

PredictIt customer service

PredictIt offers email support through a form on its site, backed by an online help center with FAQs and instructional articles covering trading basics, account verification, and fees. There's no live chat and no published phone line, which is thinner than the support options most newer platforms offer. User reports on response times vary, with some traders describing replies within a few hours and others waiting closer to a day.

Our verdict

PredictIt earned its legitimacy the hard way, by beating a CFTC shutdown order in court, and it still offers the deepest slate of pure political markets anywhere. But a decade-old cost structure, a 30-day withdrawal hold, and no mobile app make it feel like the incumbent it is next to faster-moving, better-funded rivals.

Overall rating: 3.5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

PredictIt FAQs

How old do I have to be to trade on PredictIt?

Is PredictIt legit?

Can I sell my PredictIt shares before a market resolves?

How do PredictIt's fees compare to other prediction markets?

Is there a PredictIt promo code?

Chris Jonat

Content Manager

Chris has been working in iGaming for 15 years. He has previously worked on online casinos, sportsbooks, iPoker, and the crypto industry, all of which help inform his expert coverage of the emerging prediction markets scene. We may earn a small commission from some links, but Chris's trustworthy insights are always impartial, helping you make the best decision.

Fact-checked by Alexander Korsager

Chief Gaming Officer at Casino.org

As a fact-checker, and our Chief Gaming Officer, Alex Korsager verifies all prediction market details on this page. He manually compares our pages with the prediction app, and if anything is unclear, he contacts the operator. In short, Alex ensures you can make an informed and accurate decision.