Wisconsin Gov. Evers signs first state ban on prediction market insider trading
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers signed Executive Order 294 on Thursday, May 14, barring more than 30,000 state employees and their immediate family members from using non-public information to trade on prediction markets. The order explicitly targets event-contract platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi, extending traditional insider-trading prohibitions to cover state personnel with access to material non-public information about government actions. Evers cited a recent case involving a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier who allegedly earned $410,000 using nonpublic information on a prediction market. Wisconsin is the first state to impose a ban specifically targeting prediction market activity by public officials, addressing what Evers described as a gap in existing ethics rules before any documented instances of state-level insider trading occur.
Kalshi and Polymarket must now monitor for geoblocking triggers as three separate Wisconsin-level restrictions hit within a week of Senate and Minnesota action. The patchwork forces platforms to build state-specific compliance overlays or risk being named in enforcement templates spreading to other states.
Wisconsin becomes the third state this month to move against prediction market participation, joining Minnesota's felony ban and the Senate's unanimous congressional trading prohibition, as state and federal actors race ahead of platform-level compliance systems.