US Senators Bar Themselves From Betting on Prediction Markets, Won’t Rule on Industry
The U.S. Senate has voted unanimously to impose a sweeping senate prediction markets ban, prohibiting senators and their staff from placing bets on platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, effective immediately.
The resolution, authored by Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, passed by voice vote on Thursday. Moreno argued that lawmakers “have no business” engaging in prediction market activities. The move marks one of the fastest pieces of ethics action the chamber has taken in recent memory, cutting through the usual legislative delays that have stalled even major crypto regulation.
The senate prediction markets ban specifically bars senators from entering “an agreement, contract, or transaction that provides for any purchase, sale, payment, or delivery that is dependent on the occurrence, nonoccurrence, or the extent of the occurrence of a specific event.”
The timing was hardly accidental. The resolution came just a week after a U.S. special forces soldier was charged with using classified information to bet on the January capture of Venezuela’s then-president Nicolás Maduro, and amid growing concerns about who might be placing public wagers on the ongoing war with Iran.
Earlier in April, Kalshi said it had suspended and fined one U.S. Senate candidate and two House candidates for political insider trading on their own campaigns. The incidents made it increasingly difficult for Congress to ignore the conflict of interest sitting at the intersection of lawmaking and live betting markets.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the move a “no-brainer,” saying, “We must never allow Congress to turn into a casino where members representing the public can gamble on wars or economic crises or elections.” An amendment by Senator Alex Padilla of California extended the senate prediction markets ban to cover Senate staff as well.
Polymarket, which is not supposed to operate in the U.S. following a 2022 agreement with the CFTC, posted in support of the Senate’s action, noting that its user rules “already prohibit such conduct, but codifying this into law is a step forward for the industry.”
Senators Todd Young of Indiana and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan have introduced a broader bill that would ban all federally elected officials and government employees from using insider information to make prediction market bets. Young called Thursday’s resolution a “good first step” and called on the Senate to take up the larger bill.
Whether the House follows suit remains to be seen, but Washington’s long, complicated relationship with prediction markets just got a lot more complicated.
