Congress Makes Its First Move On Prediction Markets

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate unanimously adopted a ban on its members or their staffers trading in prediction markets on Thursday.

The Senate ban represents the first step Congress has taken related to a fast-growing industry that’s made almost everything in public life a gambling opportunity.

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), who introduced the resolution, suggested it was more about Congress than the prediction markets themselves.

“It’s imperative that the American people have more faith and trust in this institution. And this is just one little piece that we can take off the board,” Moreno told HuffPost.

Prediction markets allow people to buy “event contracts” that pay out based on yes-or-no outcomes. In the past year, thanks to the Donald Trump administration’s permissive stance toward the industry, prediction market betting has spread from elections to sports to random stuff like the length of a presidential address or the duration of a national anthem performance.