The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors passed a unanimous resolution on Wednesday banning county employees from using insider information to make bets on prediction markets.
The resolution comes after Gov. Katie Hobbs banned some state employees from the same activity on prediction markets through an executive order last week.
This also comes in the wake of reports that political insiders in Washington, D.C. may be profiting from betting on things like military operations.
“One issue of particular importance to me is election integrity, and we want to make sure that our employees aren’t doing anything nefarious,” Supervisor Thomas Galvin said on Wednesday. “But at the same time — even though we don't believe they are — we want to make sure that the public knows that this is an important issue for us.”
He said the resolution shows residents the supervisors are committed to keeping everything above board.
Arizona State Law explicitly bans betting on election results. It is a misdemeanor offense.
However, enforcing that law may be a challenge. A federal judge blocked a lawsuit Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed against one prediction market, Kalshi, earlier this year because the site is under the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Neither Hobbs nor the supervisors claim that insider betting is an issue in Arizona as far as they know.
“Can you imagine Madame Chair if we did not pass this resolution and it came to light that maybe one bad seed had done something wrong? Galvin told his colleagues. “People would be justifiably upset.”
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