Senators ban themselves from prediction market trading

The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted unanimously to ban its members from making wagers on event prediction markets such as Kalshi or Polymarket, according to Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio. Senators passed a resolution, submitted by Moreno, that amends Senate rules to prohibit them from making any financial contracts or transactions that are dependent on whether or not a specific event occurs.

Has this been an ongoing problem? The news came about a week after Kalshi announced that it fined and suspended one Republican and two Democratic congressional candidates for trading on the outcomes of their elections. While the prediction platform did not share their names, it stated that the culprits were candidates for Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, Texas’ 21st Congressional District, and Virginia’s U.S. Senate seat.

The day after the Kalshi announcement, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment charging an active-duty U.S. Army soldier with using classified data about the impending capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to make wagers about the event on Polymarket.

Dig deeper: Read my report on the soldier's indictment for more details.