## U.S. Senators Move to Ban Insider Bets on Prediction Markets
A bipartisan push in the U.S. Senate aims to slam the door on a new frontier for insider trading: prediction markets. Legislation introduced Thursday would force lawmakers and federal employees to publicly disclose any wagers they place on political or policy outcomes through platforms like Polymarket or Kalshi. The core fear is that officials could use non-public government information to profit by betting on events they are shaping or have advance knowledge of, turning confidential briefings into a personal trading strategy.

The bill, led by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.), seeks to extend existing financial disclosure and conflict-of-interest rules into the rapidly growing world of event contracts. It specifically targets bets on political elections, legislative outcomes, regulatory decisions, and judicial rulings. This move places prediction market platforms, which have argued their products are for entertainment and information aggregation, under direct regulatory scrutiny as potential vehicles for government corruption.

The legislation signals mounting political pressure on an industry that has operated in a legal gray area. It frames the ability to bet on political events not as harmless speculation, but as a serious integrity risk for democracy. If passed, it would create a significant new compliance burden for thousands of federal officials and could chill the use of these platforms by the politically connected, potentially impacting market liquidity and the data these markets generate.
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- **Source**: Bloomberg Markets
- **Sector**: The Network
- **Tags**: Prediction Markets, Insider Trading, Political Corruption, Regulation, Bipartisan
- **Credibility**: unverified
- **Published**: 2026-03-26 21:57:25
- **ID**: 36148
- **URL**: https://whisperx.ai/en/intel/36148