WASHINGTON, D.C. — The White House emailed staff on March 24 warning them not to use insider information to place bets on prediction markets. The warning referenced press reports that had raised concerns about government officials using non-public information to place bets on platforms such as Kalshi or Polymarket.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle pushed back on the reporting. "Any implication that Administration officials are engaged in such activity without evidence is baseless and irresponsible reporting," Ingle said. He added that all federal employees are subject to government ethics guidelines that prohibit the use of insider information for financial gain. "The only special interest that will ever guide President Trump is the best interest of the American people," he said.

The staff-wide email came one day after President Donald Trump announced on March 23 a five-day pause on his threat to attack Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure. A bet on oil futures preceded the announced delay, after which oil prices dropped.

The warning also followed a January incident on the prediction market platform Polymarket, in which an anonymous gambler made nearly half a million dollars on a bet tied to the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro just before the capture was officially announced. The anonymous account had a blockchain identifier consisting of letters and numbers. The incident prompted concerns about whether the gambler had benefited from inside information about a U.S. military operation.

U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, sent a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission calling for an investigation into "suspicious" trades. The commission regulates derivatives trading, including prediction markets.

In March, Democratic leaders introduced legislation that would ban prediction market betting related to war or military action. U.S. Senator Andy Kim, who backed the legislative effort, said: "Corruption and exploitation are thriving right now within the gaps and loopholes of prediction markets. This manipulation leaves the select few winning big, at the expense of working Americans."

Prediction markets host more than $44 billion in trades. Users on these platforms can place bets on subjects ranging from sports outcomes to U.S. central bank rate cuts to local election results.