U.S. senators won't be weighing in on prediction markets bets after banning themselves

A U.S. Senate that's struggled to move crypto market structure legislation moved like lightning on Thursday to ban themselves from participating in prediction markets.

Acting on a simple, 14-line resolution pushed by Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, the Senate agreed unanimously to put a restriction between members and the 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 a taxpayer-funded paycheck, period,” said Senator Moreno in a Thursday statement. “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 can't enter "an agreement, contract, or transaction that provides for any purchase, sale, payment, or delivery that is dependent on the occurrence, nonoccurrence, or the extent of the occurrence of a specific event."

Political betting has surged in popularity, and some candidates for office have already been penalized for wagering on their own races.

One of the leading platforms, Polymarket, posted on social media site X that the company is in "full support" of the Senate's action. Polymarket, which isn't supposed to operate in the U.S. after a 2022 agreement 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'll reclaim the Senate majority in the November elections. Democrats have generally been more critical and suspicious of the fast-growing industry.