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Bill Introduced to Bar Insider Trading on Prediction Markets by Lawmakers

By  |  June 22, 2026
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A leading Republican on Capitol Hill wants to get Congress out of the business of making predictions. Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), chair of the House Administration Committee last week introduced legislation that would bar members of Congress, their spouses, and dependent children from placing wagers on prediction markets on public policy issues and political outcomes.

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    Called the Stop Lawmakers from Predicting Act, the bill is aimed at keeping elected officials from cashing in on information that is not yet available to the public. The proposed ban arrives as prediction-market platforms such as Kalshi, Polymarket and Coinbase have come under scrutiny in Congress over apparent insider trading, leading to calls for greater regulation.

    In April, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution barring members and their staves from participating in prediction markets involving political outcomes, policy decisions, and other events that lawmakers may have advance knowledge of through their official duties. The House Oversight Committee also recently opened an investigation of Kalshi and Polymarket of what Chairman James Comer (R-KY) called a pattern of insider trading. White House staffers were ordered in March not to place wagers on prediction markets.

    “The American people deserve to know their Member of Congress is not profiting off insider information. The Stop Lawmakers from Predicting Act ensures that cannot happen,” Steil said in a statement announcing the bill. “This legislation is critical to restoring the public’s trust in their elected officials. Lawmakers should be writing policy, not wagering on its outcome.”

    Read more: CFTC Proposes New Rules For What’s Allowed on Prediction Markets

    Under his measure, violators could be fined $2,000 or 10% of the wager’s value, whichever is higher, on top of any gains realized from the bet. Members would be barred from using money from their official office funds, allowances or campaign donations to pay the penalty. Lawmakers who leave office without paying the fine would be referred to the Justice Department for possible civil action.

    Steil had originally planned to attach similar restrictions to earlier legislation barring members, spouses and dependents from stock trading, according to Decrypt. That bill passed committee in February but has since stalled, prompting Steil to introduce his amendment as a separate measure.

    Insider trading is not the only area where prediction markets are facing scrutiny. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that its investigation of Polymarket, which has been banned from allowing U.S. users to trade on its website since 2022, found that the platform has been paying online creators and influencers to post videos of themselves placing fake successful bets on a fake website. The videos are intended to create the impression that Polymakret lets users make fast, easy money to gin up public support for bringing the offshore platform back to the U.S.

    Of 1,100 videos reviewed by the Journal, some 70% showed creators appearing to place a bet on websites that looked nearly identical to Polymarket, but were actually dummy sites the company used to film fake trades. In most cases, they did not disclose that they were paid by Polymarket.