Should Politicians Be Able to Use Prediction Markets? House Bill Proposes Ban
Rep. Ritchie Torres introduced legislation to ban government officials from prediction markets, citing insider information concerns.
In brief
- Rep. Torres proposed the Public Integrity in Financial Prediction Markets Act to keep federal officials off prediction markets.
- The bill follows controversy over a Polymarket trader winning a bet on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's removal, placed mere hours before his capture.
- Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is among 30 House members supporting the bill alongside Torres.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and 30 of his House of Representatives colleagues, including Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), are making a push to ban government officials from accessing prediction markets.
The lawmakers introduced new legislation, the Public Integrity in Financial Prediction Markets Act of 2026, on Friday morning.
The bill would stop lawmakers and their staff from participating in prediction markets. In the context of the bill, that would include all federal elected officials, political appointees, and employees of the House of Representatives, Senate, and other executive agencies.
The bill argues that D.C. insiders should be blocked from participating in markets when they possess "material non-public information" about a market or the ability to influence its outcome.
The term is borrowed from securities law and is used to stop people with insider information about a company from trading securities. Prediction markets and the companies that offer them, like Kalshi and Polymarket, have so far been exclusively regulated by the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission.
Earlier this week, Polymarket faced scrutiny after a trader won more than $400,000 on a bet that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would be removed from office before the end of the month. Criticism focused on the timing of the bet, which appeared just hours before U.S. special forces apprehended Maduro.
“The most corrupt corner of Washington, D.C. may well be the intersection of prediction markets and the federal government—where insider trading and self-dealing are no longer imagined risks but demonstrated dangers,” said Rep. Torres, in a statement. “We ignore this plain-sight corruption at our own peril."