Why the CFTC wont approve the Cantor Exchange and the Trend Exchanges prediction markets on movie box office

Product approval (see below) is a different question from exchange approval (blogged previously by Mike Giberson).

Bloomberg:

CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton called it a a€?popcorn prediction market,a€? […]

Hollywood studios that participate by hedging their filmsa€™ prospects will doom ticket sales, said Peter Guber, chairman and CEO of independent production company Mandalay Pictures LLC.

a€?The word will get out in three seconds and the picture will be a complete catastrophe,a€? said Guber, who was chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment in the early 1990s. […]

a€?We have serious concerns regarding the trading of media contracts and we support a very thorough review of all of these first-of-a-kind products,a€? CFTC Commissioner Scott Oa€™Malia said in an e-mailed statement.

U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln, an Arkansas Democrat, today added language banning trade in movie futures to a broader derivatives bill she is writing. Lincoln is chairman of the Agriculture Committee that oversees the commodity commission. […]

Activity on the exchanges would bring about a€?risky and manipulativea€? behavior, said Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican.

a€?Ia€™m worried about manipulation,a€? Chilton said in an interview on Bloomberg Television before the vote.