Rahm Emanuel says federal employees should not use prediction markets

• Presidential hopeful Rahm Emanuel has pitched a new policy idea as he hopes to limit prediction markets’ pernicious influences
• Specifically, Emanuel believes that federal employees, along with their families, must not be allowed to place trades on prediction markets
• Should he become president, he would seek further action against the sector, ideally through Congress, but also through executive orders if he must

Prediction markets are likely to continue to be a hot-button topic for lawmakers in the United States, with at least several recent moves focusing on their restriction or re-regulation.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal has introduced the Prediction Markets Security and Integrity Act, arguing that the fast-growing industry is largely unregulated and may be bypassing state gambling laws.

Democratic Presidential hopeful lays out plans for regulating prediction markets

At the same time, Senator Chris Murphy, Congressman Greg Casar, and Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari have proposed the BETS OFF ACT, seeking to ban placing trades on government actions, terrorism, war, assassination, and events where an individual knows or controls the outcome.

Now, Rahm Emanuel, a prominent Democratic Party member and one of the potential candidates for the presidency, is pitching a new policy idea that he wants to see endorsed by lawmakers.

Emanuel wants a law that will largely restrict federal employees, as well as their families, from participating in prediction markets, echoing concerns raised by others - that doing so could lead to insider trading as well as leaking statesecrets to foreign adversaries.

National security plans may have already been used to profit from such platforms, Emanuel cautioned, and said that the time to act was now.

"Somebody clearly with inside information inside the government was making bets, making money. You have fellow Americans, what I call the true 1%, the people that volunteer to serve the interests of this country and its national security, they’re putting their lives on the line, and you’ve got somebody else sitting in his or her basement placing bets on it," Emanuel said in a recent interview, commenting on his idea.

Emanuel criticizes the amorality and immorality shown by Washington insiders

Earlier this month, Gambling Is Not Investing, a trade group led by a former White House insider, Mick Mulvaney, was established, with the body signaling concerns over the leaking of state secrets to foreign adversaries through the use of prediction markets, echoing Emanuel’s concerns.

The Democrat has described prediction markets as immoral and amoral, and criticized the supposed complacency the ruling elite has shown towards these platforms, even though there were already clear red flags - such as bets placed in advance of military operations in Iran and Venezuela.

Emanuel is going to make prediction markets part of his agenda, should he ever become president. Ideally, he would work with Congress to address the issue, but failing that, he would probably resort to executive orders.

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