U.S. senators representing Michiana work to ban government officials from insider trading on prediction markets

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Michigan Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin and Republican Senator Todd Young of Indiana worked together to introduce new legislation to prevent federal elected officials and some government employees from using ‘insider information’ to bet on prediction markets, like Kalshi or Polymarket.

A special forces soldier was recently indicted on charges of using classified information to bet on Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan President’s capture, allegedly making more than $400,000 on Polymarket. 

Polymarket said Thursday that it is taking steps to monitor the platform for ‘suspicious trades.'

When asked about the ‘Public Integrity in Financial Prediction Markets Act of 2026,’ Young says members of Congress are exposed to a lot of ‘non-public material information that could move markets if it were made public.’

“We should make sure that they're not using that information to enrich themselves, their family members, or others. Nothing could be more fundamental than that. It's just basic fair play and honest government. We also want to make sure that decisions are made for pure reasons, so as not to move markets and impact stock prices and prediction event contracts that people are involved in,” said Young.

He says it is important to avoid the appearance of impropriety and prevent the loss of public trust.

“We've also seen some very notable cases recently where you had a US army soldier, for example, betting on an event contract and prediction markets for their own benefit related to the war with Venezuela and that whole operation, we have to assume those sorts of events are going to continue. I find them offensive, and that's what prompted action by me and other members of Congress on this prediction markets effort,” said Young.

The legislation was introduced by four senators, led by Senator Young and Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin from Michigan.

“We're going to debate, we're going to argue about certain important things here in Washington across party lines, but we also need to remind the American people that there are some base-level fundamental principles that we know all Americans hold dear. One of those is there should be no corruption in government, and that you can trust your members of Congress to make decisions based on what is best for the American people and not what is best for their own stock portfolios or bank accounts. That fundamental principle needs to be a bipartisan principle, and that's why I came together with Senator Slotkin on this effort,” said Young.

Since its introduction in late March, the bill has been read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.