Governor Josh Stein has signed an executive order that bars North Carolina state employees from using insider knowledge to place bets on prediction markets.
Platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi allow wagers on outcomes ranging from sports contests to government decisions, and Stein said the move was necessary to protect public trust.
Safeguarding the Integrity of Public Service
The governor noted that safeguarding confidential data flows is critical to maintaining administrative transparency:
“When people use non-public information they have gained at work for unfair gain, we run into trouble. People need to have faith that the public servants are working on their behalf, not leveraging their knowledge unfairly to win a bet and make money.”
The order builds on the North Carolina State Ethics Act, which already prohibits insider trading by public servants. Stein stressed that he has no evidence of state employees engaging in such activity, but he believes the measure will reassure residents.
Stein explained that the administrative update acts as a preventative buffer for public trust:
“To be clear, I do not have any reason to believe that any state employees are currently making these unethical bets. I don’t expect the executive order will impact their daily lives, but what it will do is increase the public’s confidence that we work for them.”
Tracking Federal Precedents
Governor Josh Stein pointed to recent national incidents as part of his reasoning. Federal prosecutors revealed last month that a United States Army soldier at Fort Bragg made $400,000 by using classified information to bet on the timing of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s removal. Stein said that case, combined with broader national trends and discussions with his staff, pushed him to act. He added that it is corrupting people’s faith in the government.
The executive order comes as lawmakers in the state consider further restrictions. Earlier this month, House Democrats introduced a bill to ban all prediction market betting in North Carolina, though the proposal has not yet been scheduled for a hearing. North Carolina also joins Wisconsin and New York as states to have issued an executive order banning insider trading on prediction markets.
This month also saw Minnesota become the first state to pass a law banning prediction markets outright, a move that has since seen the state sued by both Kalshi and the CFTC over exclusive federal jurisdiction concerns.
