Gillibrand, McCormick team up to crack down on prediction markets

Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Dave McCormick want to bar federal lawmakers from placing wagers on prediction markets and tighten rules around insider trading on the platforms.

The bipartisan duo introduced a bill Thursday to crack down on the wildly popular, freewheeling platforms, just hours after the Senate unanimously approved a resolution that would bar members of the upper chamber and their staffers from trading on prediction markets.

McCormick and Gillibrand’s bill would go further and prohibit the president, vice president and senior executive branch officials from trading on prediction markets. It would also require the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to determine whether its regulations need to be updated to prevent insider trading on the platforms and act on those findings.

The bill comes two days after a U.S. soldier was arraigned in federal court on charges he used insider knowledge of the military’s plans to capture former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to place over a dozen wagers.

The indictment of Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, was widely seen as a sign the laissez-faire approach to prediction markets in Washington could be coming to an end. The soldier, who prosecutors say netted over $400,000 off his bets, has pleaded not guilty.

In a statement, Gillibrand (D-NY) said that “elected officials should be working for the people they represent — not lining their own pockets with insider information.”

“Americans deserve financial markets that are fair, transparent, and not tilted in favor of those with privileged access,” Gillibrand said. “This commonsense, bipartisan bill puts strong guardrails in place to protect consumers, prevent insider trading, and hold prediction market platforms to standards of integrity.”

The measure from Gillibrand and McCormick, a Pennsylvania Republican, would also empower the CFTC to ban prediction market bets on war, violence, terrorism and other acts “contrary to the public interest” on a case-by-case basis and mandate companies like Polymarket and Kalshi verify users are at least 18 years old.

The legislation comes as lawmakers grapple with how to regulate an emerging technology that has been embraced by President Donald Trump’s own son, Donald Trump Jr., who is an adviser to both Polymarket and Kalshi. The White House has also taken a hands-off approach to prediction markets, ending two federal probes into Polymarket.

The proposed measure would not strip away federal authorities’ jurisdiction over prediction market wagers. Over the past year, the CFTC has sued several states that have attempted to regulate prediction markets.