US lawmakers Murphy, Casar push legislation to regulate prediction markets
Al Jazeera
The legislation aims to prevent bets made based on insider knowledge of wars, economic policy and other controllable events.
United States Senator Chris Murphy and House Representative Greg Casar are set to introduce legislation to rein in prediction markets after bettors cashed in on geopolitical conflicts, including the joint strikes the US and Israel launched against Iran and the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
On Tuesday, the two lawmakers announced their intent to introduce the Banning Event Trading on Sensitive Operations and Federal Functions (BETS OFF) Act, which would prohibit wagers on “government actions, terrorism, war, assassination, and events where an individual knows or controls the outcome”.
“Our legislation is pretty simple. It simply says that these markets cannot allow people to make bets on government decision-making and frankly on other instances where there is one single individual who controls and knows the outcome of a market,” Murphy told reporters.
The bill comes amid a slate of legislation to put guardrails on prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, which allow users to wager money on the outcomes of real-life events.
Already, bets on the platforms have been placed on US military strikes and monetary policy.
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