Senate bans senators

Senate bans senators from prediction market trading

The prohibition would apply to senators and staff.

Jordain Carney

The Senate Thursday unanimously voted to ban senators and their staff from trading on prediction markets, a practice that has come under growing scrutiny on Capitol Hill in recent months.

The resolution, spearheaded by Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), prohibits senators and staff from using prediction markets. It goes into effect immediately.

“United States Senators have no business engaging in speculative activities like prediction markets while collecting a taxpayer-funded paycheck, period,” Moreno, who spearheaded the resolution, said in a statement.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said it was “a good thing that the Senate is moving swiftly” and urged the House and the administration to enact similar rules.

“Speaker Johnson should immediately do the same thing in the House,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

He added that once the Senate returns from a one-week break in mid-May that he will work to ensure administration officials also “can’t get rich off betting markets.”

The development received swift applause from Polymarket itself, which wrote on a social media post, “We’re in full support of this. Our Rulebook & Terms of Service already prohibit such conduct, but codifying this into law is a step forward for the industry. Happy to help move this forward however we can.”

Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) wrote on X he hoped this wasn’t the end of progress on the Hill in putting guardrails on use of prediction markets by members of Congress and aides.

“This applies to senators and Senate staff and is a good first step in response to concerns I and others have raised. I encourage the House to follow suit,” he said. “At a minimum, we should pass my bill with [Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.)] to prohibit all federally elected officials and government employees from using insider information to bet on a prediction market contract.”