Federal legislators seek to prevent insider trading by government employees.
The Senate recently passed a resolution by unanimous consent, introduced by Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio, that prohibits senators from participating in prediction market trading. Throughout 2026, an effort by members of both the Senate and the House gained traction to ban government officials from engaging in the prediction betting market, ideally spanning across the entire federal ecosystem. This law is a change to the rules already in place, bypassing the need for an extended and expansive voting process.
“My issue is, let’s clean up Congress. If there are going to be guardrails in prediction markets, that’s a longer conversation that should have hearings,” Senator Moreno said. “But we don’t want to wait until that… we just wanted to clean up Congress.”
He also stated, “I think the last thing anybody here who’s serving wants to do is be referred to the Ethics [Committee] for an investigation that would be the end of their political career.“
Just recently, an Army soldier pleaded not guilty after allegedly leveraging confidential information to make a bet on Polymarket, a well-known platform for betting on predictions. The soldier earned $400,000 from his bets, predicting that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would be taken from power.
The Department of Justice stated that the soldier “participated in the planning and execution of the U.S. military operation to capture Nicolás Maduro, called ‘Operation Absolute Resolve,’ and… used his access to classified information about that operation to personally profit.”
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For Senator Moreno and his colleague to continue the effort against insider trading in the federal sphere.
- For members of the House and Senate to have integrity and prudent in the standards they set for the federal government.
Sources: Roll Call, Department of Justice
