US Politics

It's almost like the term "conflict of interest" has a meaning which is narrowly defined with legal implications.

But I'm sure that's true of lots of terms, like 'act of God' or 'contract' and that doesn't negate them having other meanings.

I think the argument that odds may have an impact similar to polls is worth thinking about, but I suspect odds are based on polls

You (and @Brommers) may be great lawyers, but I feel you would make very poor bookies or traders. Initial odds might be based on polls, but they change based on the bets people place, otherwise the bookie would be rapidly out of pocket. So they fairly directly reflect a subset of actual financial interests; polls are a rather indirect way of predicting how people claim they will vote in the future.