A US Senate that has struggled to pass legislation on cryptocurrency market structure moved swiftly on Thursday to ban itself from participating in prediction markets.
Acting on a simple 14-line resolution pushed by Ohio Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno, the Senate unanimously agreed to impose a restriction between members and the increasingly popular and controversial betting platforms that have drawn scrutiny over insider trading activity and fights over who has regulatory jurisdiction.
“United States senators have no business engaging in speculative activities like prediction markets while collecting a taxpayer-funded paycheck, period,” Senator Moreno said in a statement Thursday. “Serving in Congress should never be about finding new ways to make profits; it should be about delivering results for the American people.”
Effective immediately, the change to Senate rules now states that senators cannot enter into “an agreement, contract or transaction providing for any purchase, sale, payment or delivery that is dependent on the occurrence, non-occurrence or extent of occurrence of a specific event.”
Political betting has grown in popularity and some candidates for public office have already been penalized for betting on their own elections.
One of the leading platforms, Polymarket, posted on social media site X that the company “fully supports” the Senate’s action. Polymarket, which is not supposed to operate in the US after a 2022 settlement with the CFTC, noted that its user rules “already prohibit such conduct, but codifying this into law is a step forward for the industry.”
Going for Polymarket currently gives Democrats even a chance of regaining the Senate majority in the November elections. Democrats have generally been more critical and distrustful of the fast-growing industry.
