A US Senate that is struggling to advance crypto market structure legislation moved like lightning on Thursday to ban itself from participating in prediction markets.
Acting on a simple, 14-line proposal introduced by Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, the Senate unanimously agreed to impose a ban between members and increasingly popular, 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 taxpayer-funded paychecks,” Senator Moreno said in a statement Thursday. “Serving in Congress should never be about finding new ways to profit; it should be about delivering results for the American people.”
Effective immediately, the change to Senate rules now holds that senators may not enter into “an agreement, contract, or transaction that provides for any purchase, sale, payment, or delivery that is dependent on the occurrence, non-occurrence, or extent of any specific event.”
Political betting has increased in popularity, and some candidates for office have already been penalized for betting on their race.
Polymarket, one of the major platforms, posted on social media site X that the company was in “full support” of the Senate’s action. PolyMarkets, which is not to operate in the US after a 2022 settlement with the CFTC, noted that its user rules “already prohibit this kind of conduct, but codifying it into law is a step forward for the industry.”
PolyMarkets is betting on the current possibility that Democrats will recapture the Senate majority in the November elections. Democrats have generally been more critical and suspicious of the fast-growing industry.