California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an govt order on Friday, increasing guidelines to curb public servants and people near them from benefiting from insider buying and selling on prediction markets tied to political or financial occasions they’ll affect or are aware of.
The order prohibits “gubernatorial appointees,” public officers appointed to workplace by the governor of the state, from utilizing “confidential or personal data” gleaned from performing their duties to revenue from associated prediction markets.
Newsom’s govt order additionally extends the prohibition to incorporate spouses, members of the family or former enterprise companions of the appointed officers from utilizing personal data to revenue. “Public service shouldn’t be a get-rich-quick scheme,” Newsom mentioned. He added:
“At a time when Trump’s Washington is riddled with moral failures and insider profiteering, California is drawing a vibrant line: If you happen to serve the general public as a political appointee, you serve the general public — interval. We’re not going to tolerate this sort of corruption in California.”
An announcement from Newsom’s workplace listed a number of situations of political insiders utilizing personal data to revenue from prediction markets, together with six suspected political insiders who profited from US strikes on Iran.
Newsom’s workplace additionally cited one other case of suspected insider buying and selling, which occurred in January, after one Polymarket dealer netted $410,000 betting that the US would arrest former Venezuelan chief Nicolás Maduro hours earlier than his seize.
Prediction markets have come below scrutiny from US lawmakers, who argue that political insiders are utilizing the platforms to unfairly profit from their positions and are doubtlessly threatening nationwide safety by wagering on delicate occasions like struggle and elections.
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Texas Congressman Greg Casar and Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy launched the “Banning Occasion Buying and selling on Delicate Operations and Federal Capabilities (BETS OFF) Act” in March 2026 in response to the prediction market insider buying and selling allegations.
The invoice seeks to ban authorities insiders from utilizing prediction platforms to revenue from markets tied to struggle or loss of life.
US Consultant Adrian Smith and Consultant Nikki Budzinski additionally launched comparable laws in March, titled the “Stopping Actual-time Exploitation and Misleading Insider Congressional Buying and selling (PREDICT) Act.”
The legislative proposal prohibits the US President, lawmakers and different high-ranking authorities officers from betting on prediction markets.
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