‘Game the system’: Philadelphia state legislator seeks to outlaw insider betting on prediction markets

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Pennsylvania lawmakers introduced legislation earlier this week that would prohibit people with insider knowledge from betting on outcomes using prediction markets.

State Rep. Tarik Khan, D-Philadelphia, on April 29, filed a bill that proposes certain restrictions on prediction markets, or platforms where users can wager on everything from the weather to election results.

For example, athletes couldn’t bet on their own games or politicians on their own elections.

Khan told WHYY News that his legislation would not outlaw the platforms themselves but would protect the general public from those that would use them to cheat.

“We have a duty to make sure that these markets are legit and that people are not getting scammed,” Khan said. “To think that people that have inside information — people in power — are able to game this system and make millions off the backs of people that are trying to do it the honest way — it’s a problem.”

The bill is co-sponsored by several other Democrats, including fellow Philadelphia Rep. Danilo Burgos and Rep. Jim Prokopiak of Bucks County, but Republicans Jeremy Shaffer of Allegheny County and Jamie Flick of Lycoming County have also signed on, giving it bipartisan credibility.

The legislation also would prohibit betting on some high-risk and unethical markets, such as those involving death or mass casualty events, and would ban minors from participating.

The bill would also forbid betting on high school sports in the commonwealth, which Khan called a “common sense” solution to a growing problem.

“There’s just too much of a risk of corrupting and adulterating the purity of these sports,” he said. “That’s a problem.”

Khan said he was motivated to file the legislation after learning about the case involving U.S. Army Special Forces Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke. Van Dyke was indicted last week and charged with using classified information for personal gain. He allegedly made $400,000 on Polymarket, one of the two biggest prediction market platforms, after making a bet on the operation to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro before the raid was made public.

Van Dyke, who helped plan and execute the mission, pleaded not guilty last week and is now awaiting trial. While he was the only one to be facing criminal charges, other reports have surfaced recently about similar possible activity, such as another Polymarket user who bet President Donald Trump would pardon certain individuals, which he eventually did, netting the user more than $300,000.

Khan said he would leave it to the courts to decide whether prediction markets were legal or not, but he said the platforms would be legally required to detect and report suspicious activity.

“Because people, consumers, neighbors are wagering money on these outcomes, we have to make sure that they’re protected,” he said. “We have a duty to protect the public.”

WHYY News reached out to Polymarket and Kalshi, the other of the largest two prediction market platforms, for comment but neither responded by the time of publication.