The U.S. Senate voted unanimously on April 30 to ban senators and their staff from trading on prediction markets, moving with immediate effect to foreclose what lawmakers described as an unchecked channel for insider trading by officials with access to government secrets.

The resolution, introduced by Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and amended by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) to extend the prohibition to Senate staff, passed by voice vote without a single objection.

Proud to say my bill to ban members of Congress from insider trading on prediction markets just passed the Senate UNANIMOUSLY!

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a side hustle. Americans deserve to know that their leaders are here for the right reason!

— Bernie Moreno (@berniemoreno) April 30, 2026

“United States senators have no business engaging in speculative activities like prediction markets while collecting a taxpayer-funded paycheck, period,” Moreno said on the Senate floor.

The vote came one week after federal prosecutors charged U.S. Army Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke with using classified military information to profit from prediction market bets. Van Dyke, a Special Forces soldier who participated in the planning and execution of the January operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, allegedly placed approximately $33,000 across 13 trades on Polymarket, a major offshore prediction market platform, before the mission became public.

Federal prosecutors said he profited more than $400,000. Van Dyke pleaded not guilty on April 28 in Manhattan federal court.

Separate concerns about anonymous traders had accelerated congressional attention to the platforms before the Van Dyke case was unsealed. The Associated Press reported in early April that at least 50 newly created Polymarket accounts placed concentrated bets totaling approximately $484,000 on a U.S.-Iran ceasefire hours before President Donald Trump announced an agreement on April 7.

The accounts had no prior trading activity on the platform. The White House sent staff an internal email on March 24 warning against using government information to make prediction market bets, one day after Trump announced a pause on threatened strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) urged the House of Representatives and the Trump administration to adopt equivalent restrictions. “We must never allow Congress to turn into a casino where members representing the public can gamble on wars or economic crises or elections,” Schumer said.

Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) said on X that she would introduce a companion measure in the House.

I am leading this effort in the House. Let’s get it done. 💪 https://t.co/DkVuGwaMg3

— Ashley Hinson (@RepAshleyHinson) April 30, 2026

Stock Reform Stalls

The Senate’s ability to act on prediction markets stands against a sustained and largely unsuccessful effort to restrict lawmakers from trading individual stocks, a longer-established conflict of interest that ethics experts say carries broader systemic consequences.

Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wisconsin), chairman of the House Administration Committee, introduced the Stop Insider Trading Act (SITA) on January 12, 2026. The bill would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses, and dependent children from purchasing new individual stocks and require seven to 14 days of public notice before any sale. Existing stock holdings would not require divestment. SITA passed the committee 7-4 on January 14.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) told reporters in February that a floor vote would come “soon.” As of April 30, no vote has been scheduled.

SITA is one of 25 measures introduced in the 119th Congress targeting congressional financial activity, according to testimony before the House Administration Committee in November 2025. Other proposals include the End Congressional Stock Trading Act, the Halting Ownership and Non-Ethical Stock Transactions Act, and the Restore Trust in Congress Act, which would require members to fully divest individual stock holdings. None have received a floor vote in either chamber.

Enforcing the law that already exists has proven equally difficult. The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, enacted in 2012, requires members of Congress to disclose stock transactions of more than $1,000 within 45 days and prohibits trading on material non-public information. The penalty for a late disclosure filing is $200. No member of Congress has ever been prosecuted under the STOCK Act, including those who executed stock transactions after receiving classified briefings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Financial data firm Unusual Whales documented approximately 1,200 late STOCK Act disclosures from 40 lawmakers in 2025 alone. Its annual report found that 32% of tracked members outperformed the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust that year. Congressional members collectively sold approximately $170 million in individual stock and purchased approximately $125 million in 2025.

 

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Whether the $200 fines are collected at all remains unclear. After Business Insider filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Treasury Department for records of fine payments by 22 members of Congress known to have violated the STOCK Act’s disclosure requirements, the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service responded that it found “no matches.” 

No public record of STOCK Act fine payments exists. A senior congressional aide familiar with House procedures told Business Insider that members received no automated notification when they were in violation and that compliance depended entirely on an “honor system.”

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in trades for approximately a year in 2025, Oklahoma Watch reported. The violation carried a $200 fine under the STOCK Act. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) told Business Insider the penalty structure undermines any deterrent effect the law was intended to create. “That $200 fine may not be a huge amount to many of our members, but it should be routinely, emphatically enforced,” Merkley said. “No excuses.”

Johnson has declined to advance the Restore Trust in Congress Act, the proposal most favored by government ethics organizations, which would require full divestment of stock holdings. “You don’t want another deterrence for good people running for office,” Johnson said of strict trading restrictions.

Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told Business Insider that Congress’s approach to the STOCK Act “sends the message that they are held to a lesser standard than other government employees, and that they are above the law.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), whose Banning Event Trading on Sensitive Operations and Federal Functions (BETS OFF) Act, introduced in March 2026, would prohibit wagering on government decisions, military operations, and war, told NBC News he doubts a Senate-only prediction market rule will be sufficient. Murphy said sensitive information reaches well beyond elected senators to staff and executive branch officials not covered by Thursday’s resolution.

Sens. Todd Young (R-Indiana) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan), who introduced the bipartisan Public Integrity in Financial Markets Act of 2026 in March to mandate disclosure of prediction market activity and establish penalties for all federal officials, said the Senate resolution was “a good first step” but called for the chamber to take up their broader bill.

This applies to senators and Senate staff and is a good first step in response to concerns I and others have raised. I encourage the House to follow suit. At a minimum, we should pass my bill with @SenatorSlotkin to prohibit all federally elected officials and government… https://t.co/2h8XYy2vIM

— Senator Todd Young (@SenToddYoung) April 30, 2026

Thursday’s Senate resolution does not extend to House members, White House officials, cabinet secretaries, or federal judges. The Senate urged all three branches to adopt equivalent prohibitions.