US Democrats call for ban on prediction market betting by federal workers

More than 40 Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. House and Senate have sent a letter to federal regulators and ethics authorities urging a ban on public sector employees betting on prediction markets, CoinDesk reported. In the letter to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and ethics officials, the lawmakers emphasized that it is illegal for government officials to use inside information to profit from derivatives. They argued that this ban should explicitly apply to trading on prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi, and called for new guidelines and a clarification of legal obligations to prevent such actions. The letter was reportedly prompted by allegations that some officials in the Trump administration had misused internal military information for personal gain.