Congressional scrutiny of prediction markets is widening after a run of controversies around event contracts tied to politics, government action, sports and military outcomes.

The newest proposal is the Campaign Event Contract Integrity Act from Reps. Seth Moulton and Ritchie Torres. Their bill targets campaign insiders, seeking to close what they describe as a loophole that lets people with confidential campaign information trade on political prediction markets. The proposal builds on Moulton's earlier office policy barring staff from trading on political, legislative, regulatory and geopolitical outcomes.

A broader push is also already on the table. Rep. Jamie Raskin and Sen. Jeff Merkley introduced the STOP Corrupt Bets Act in March, which would ban prediction market betting on elections, government actions, sports and military actions. The bill frames those event contracts as outside the original purpose of commodities markets and argues that the risk of insider trading is too high.

The pressure is notable because platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket have spent the past year moving prediction markets closer to mainstream finance. CoinDesk reported fresh concern from blockchain analysts and policy watchers over markets linked to U.S. attacks on Iran, where well-timed wagers revived questions about information leakage.

None of the bills is guaranteed to pass. But the policy direction is becoming clearer: lawmakers are separating ordinary market forecasting from contracts where official access, campaign knowledge or military information could become a trading edge.