House Oversight chair raises possible ban on officials’ prediction-market trading

House Oversight Chairman James Comer has called on Congress to consider curbing government officials’ use of prediction markets, including a possible outright ban, after the committee released findings from its insider-trading inquiry on Friday.

The proposed restrictions could limit the contracts available to federal employees, lawmakers and congressional staff, particularly government-related markets, or prohibit such trading altogether. The committee said extending the rules across all branches of government would reinforce the principle that officials should not personally profit from nonpublic information obtained through their work.

Comer said Congress “must consider additional reforms to prevent public corruption and restore the American people’s trust in government.” The inquiry, launched in May, examines whether prediction-market platforms have adequate safeguards against government employees, contractors and other insiders using sensitive or classified information.

The review leading to Friday’s findings considered 1,700 pages of documents and included five bipartisan staff briefings from prediction-market companies, according to The Block. In an earlier committee release, House Oversight said it had received nearly 1,000 documents and five briefings from Polymarket and Kalshi representatives.

The committee said some users had made thousands of dollars by betting on nonpublic information as online prediction platforms became more mainstream. Its concerns cover government officials, military personnel and people holding security clearances. Washington scrutiny intensified after allegations that an active-duty Army soldier used confidential information to bet on Polymarket before the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro; the former White House teleprompter operator was also found to have used inside information to profit from prediction-market bets.

House Oversight said Congress should help platforms and federal agencies share information necessary to enforce any trading restrictions. Kalshi and Polymarket told the committee they had tightened controls intended to prevent officials from using inside information.

The proposed federal action comes as other lawmakers scrutinise the sector’s election-related markets. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and John Curtis have asked Kalshi and Polymarket for information on safeguards against insider trading, manipulation and wagers based on material nonpublic information. They said cases of candidates trading on their own races, along with alleged trading by campaign insiders before polling was released, raised questions about whether improper activity was going undetected.

The Senate voted in April to pass a resolution barring its members from trading on prediction markets.