A US Senate that has been struggling to move legislation on crypto market structure moved like lightning on Thursday to ban itself from participating in prediction markets.
On the back of a simple, 14-line resolution pushed by Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, the Senate unanimously agreed to set a limit between members and the increasingly popular, controversial betting platforms that have drawn oversight of insider trading activity and fights over who has regulatory jurisdiction.
“The United States senators have no business engaging in speculative activities like prediction markets while collecting a taxpayer-funded paycheck,” 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 amendment to Senate rules now maintains that senators cannot enter into “an agreement, contract or transaction providing for the purchase, sale, payment or delivery that is dependent on the occurrence, non-occurrence, or extent of the occurrence of a specific event.”
Political betting has grown in popularity, and some candidates for office have already been penalized for betting on their own races.
One of the leading platforms, Polymarket, wrote on social media X that the company is “fully supportive” of the Senate’s action. Polymarket, which is not expected 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.”
Betting on Polymarket currently gives Democrats even odds that they will regain the Senate majority in the November election. Democrats have generally been more critical and suspicious of the fast-growing industry.
