By Sam Barron | Thursday, 30 April 2026 04:24 PM EDT
The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a rule barring senators and staff from using prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket.
This vote follows the charging of an Army Special Forces master sergeant with using classified intelligence about the capture of then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to profit on the Polymarket platform. Prosecutors state that the sergeant cleared more than $400,000 in trades, which authorities describe as the first criminal insider-trading case involving a U.S. event-betting platform. Gannon Ken Van Dyke has pleaded not guilty.
Last week, Kalshi suspended and fined three political candidates for trading on its regulated prediction market: Mark Moran, an independent running for U.S. Senate in Virginia; Ezekiel Enriquez, a former Republican congressional candidate in Texas; and Matt Klein, a Minnesota state senator running for Congress as a Democrat.
“Bad actors will try to cheat,” said Bobby DeNault, Kalshi’s head of enforcement and legal counsel. “Regulated exchanges must constantly evolve and adapt their systems to address insider threats.”
“These cases illustrate how proactive engineering solutions can help identify illicit trading activity,” he added.
Kalshi and Polymarket both praised the Senate vote.
“I applaud the Senate for passing this resolution to bar Senators and their offices from trading on prediction markets,” Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour wrote in a social media post. “Kalshi already proactively blocks members of Congress and enforces against insider trading. This is a great step to increase trust in our markets by making it an industry standard.”
Mansour noted his desire for the House of Representatives to pass similar legislation. Polymarket stated: “We are fully supportive of this rule. Our Rulebook & Terms of Service prohibit such conduct, but codifying this into law represents a significant advancement for the industry. We are happy to assist in moving forward.”
Sam Barron has nearly two decades of experience covering politics, crime, and business.
