Congressman Tom Barrett announced on May 4 that he has co-sponsored the Preventing Real-time Exploitation and Deceptive Insider Congressional Trading (PREDICT) Act, a bipartisan measure aimed at stopping senior government officials from placing bets in prediction markets using insider knowledge. The announcement follows Barrett’s implementation of an office policy banning his staff from wagering on prediction markets related to government action or information learned through their employment.
Barrett said the legislation is intended to address concerns about manipulation and corruption as prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket become more popular. “Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are changing the betting landscape by giving Americans a place to wager on everything from the weather in Chicago to the winner of an election in Kalamazoo. They are also a breeding ground for potential manipulation and corruption,” Barrett said. “The PREDICT Act gets ahead of this rapidly developing problem by banning high-ranking government officials — who are in the perfect position to influence outcomes — from betting on these under-regulated platforms and profiting off insider information. This bipartisan bill is a common-sense way to hold politicians in Washington to the same standard I hold my office to and begin the difficult process of rebuilding trust in government.”
The PREDICT Act would prohibit members of Congress, as well as other high-ranking federal officials including cabinet members, judges, the president, and vice president, from trading based on political events or policy decisions.
The legislation comes after recent incidents involving prediction market misuse. According to Barrett’s office, three political candidates were found using Kalshi’s platform to bet on their own races; authorities have also investigated alleged tampering with a weather thermometer by a Polymarket trader who had placed related bets. In another case, a soldier was charged for using classified information about an operation targeting Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro for advance wagers.
Barrett described this bill as part of his broader effort called Blueprint for a Better America: Restoring Trust in Government.
A full copy of the bill is available online.
