MARYLAND (WBFF) — Governor Wes Moore recently signed an executive order banning state employees from placing bets on prediction markets using insider information.
“The citizens of Maryland deserve a government where State business is conducted truthfully and honestly, free from the existence or perception of any corruption or misconduct,” the executive order said.
According to the executive order, State employees cannot engage in “financial transactions, including transactions made on prediction markets, using nonpublic government information obtained through their State employment or contractual relationship with the State, to benefit themselves financially or to further any private interest.”
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This comes as a U.S. Soldier was charged, accused of using classified information to earn more than $400,000 from prediction market bets related to the removal of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Governors in other states have signed similar executive orders, especially as the conversation around prediction markets and future regulations takes place on a national level.
A spokesperson for Governor Wes Moore said in Maryland, they “are not aware of any cases so far, but with the number of high profile stories of this occurring this year, the Governor wanted to make the state’s policy absolutely clear.”
“It’s ridiculous when you think about the type of grifting that goes on,” Governor Wes Moore said.
Senate Minority Leader Stephen Hershey, a Republican representing Caroline, Cecil, Kent & Queen Anne’s Counties, said while he supports the premise of this executive order, he questioned if it was necessary.
“Certainly we’re supportive and not wanting to see state employees make any kind of profit off of knowledge that they might know. And you are seeing a lot of these prediction markets that are out there right now, but at the end of the day, this has already been covered in our ethics committee and the state ethics department, so I don’t see that this was necessarily necessary for the Governor to come out and make a point about this,” Sen. Hershey said.
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Senator Hershey said the focus should be on other issues like the budget.
“We’re going to return back to General Assembly next January, and we’re going to be looking at almost a $2 billion fiscal deficit that wasn’t addressed,” Hershey said.
“We talked about it being an election year budget. They pushed all decisions off until next year. And you know, those are the tough decisions. That’s what governing is all about. And obviously that hadn’t occurred this legislative session, so there’s nothing for them to really talk about,” he added.
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