The Senate passed a resolution Thursday barring members and staff from participating in prediction market betting, at a time when lawmakers are grappling with how to regulate the rapidly growing industry.
The resolution, which was introduced by Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno, passed unanimously and will go into effect immediately.
“Engaging in any way in a prediction market or trying to place bets where we might have inside information deteriorates our confidence that our constituents have in us,” Moreno said on the Senate floor. “So it’s extremely important that the public know that from this day forward, there is no chance that any member of Congress, member of the Senate, in this case, in this resolution I’m going to propose, be involved in any prediction market whatsoever.”
While Moreno’s resolution only applies to the Senate, Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson said she will lead a similar effort in the House.
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The resolution comes at a time where there are growing concerns regarding the rapid expansion of prediction market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket. However, both platforms praised the Senate for passing the resolution.
“I applaud the Senate for passing this resolution to ban Senators and their offices from trading on prediction markets,” Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said on X. “Kalshi already proactively blocks members of congress and enforces against insider trading. This is a great step to increase trust in our markets by making it an industry standard.”
Also in a post on X, Polymarket said it is “in full support” of the resolution.
“Our Rulebook & Terms of Service already prohibit such conduct, but codifying this into law is a step forward for the industry,” the post said. “Happy to help move this forward however we can.”
Last week, Kalshi suspended three political candidates for betting on their own races.
“Just like in traditional financial markets, bad actors will try to cheat,” Bobby DeNault, the head of enforcement and legal counsel at Kalshi, wrote in a press release. “Regulated exchanges must constantly evolve and adapt their systems to address insider threats. These three cases are an example of how developing proactive engineering solutions can help identify illicit trading activity.”
The Department of Justice also announced last week that a U.S. special forces soldier will face several charges for using Polymarket to bet on the raid in Venezuela that led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a soldier, netted over $400,000 on his bet.
“Our men and women in uniform are trusted with classified information in order to accomplish their mission as safely and effectively as possible, and are prohibited from using this highly sensitive information for personal financial gain,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the DOJ announcement of Van Dyke’s arrest. “Widespread access to prediction markets is a relatively new phenomenon, but federal laws protecting national security information fully apply.”
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