House eyes ban on election betting by lawmakers and candidates
Rep. Bryan Steil is drafting legislation that would prohibit members of Congress and political candidates from placing bets on elections or politics through prediction markets. The proposed ban targets the growing availability of political event contracts on regulated platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket. Steil has not yet introduced the bill, and no timeline for markup has been announced. The drafting signals rising bipartisan interest in regulating how elected officials interact with event-contract platforms amid broader scrutiny of prediction markets in Washington. More than ten prediction-market-related bills have emerged in Congress.
Polymarket and Kalshi would lose their highest-profile organic user segment if congressional accounts are forced to close, stripping both platforms of the political insider flow that drives liquidity on Capitol Hill-adjacent contracts. The ban would also pressure competing platforms to build real-time surveillance systems capable of flagging elected-official trades before regulators demand them.
Steil's draft ban joinsKalshi's referral of ex-Rep. George Santos to DOJ and CFTC over State of the Union betsas the latest Capitol Hill move to police elected officials on prediction markets, after separate insider-trading scrutiny of another former lawmaker.