Lawmakers Introduce BETS OFF Act to Ban Government Action Wagers

U.S. lawmakers introduced the Banning Event Trading on Sensitive Operations and Federal Functions (BETS OFF) Act on March 17, 2026, following reports of suspicious betting patterns surrounding U.S. military strikes in Iran and Venezuela. Chris Murphy and Greg Casar authored the bill to prohibit wagers on terrorism, assassinations, war, and events where a single individual controls the outcome. The legislation would impose criminal penalties on U.S. operators and block payment processing for prohibited markets.

The push for regulation follows a surge in the prediction market sector, which has hosted over $44 billion in trades. Concerns peaked over platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, with reports that unusual high-value bets were placed immediately before U.S. hostilities began. Lawmakers argue these markets create perverse incentives for government officials to prioritize financial gain over national security. In response to allegations that White House officials used insider knowledge to profit, spokesperson Davis Ingle denied any involvement by the Trump administration.

Other legislative efforts accompany the BETS OFF Act, including the Prediction Markets Security and Integrity Act introduced by Senator Richard Blumenthal and the DEATH BETS Act by Senator Adam Schiff. While the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has defended event contracts as serving legitimate economic functions, critics and advocacy groups like Public Citizen describe the betting on heads-of-state deaths as gruesome. The regulatory pressure coincides with separate criminal charges filed by Arizona against Kalshi.