Hegseth Bans Insider Bets on Military Operations and Names Kalshi, Polymarket

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has barred military and Pentagon personnel from any financial transaction informed by nonpublic information about military operations, in a memo he signed on October 20. CBS News reported the memo on October 22 The order reaches past classified material. It covers transactions informed by “classified or unclassified information,” whether made directly or through a third party. Covered venues include “traditional betting platforms and prediction markets,” and the memo names Polymarket and Kalshi as examples. The memo does not bar personnel from prediction markets themselves, Task and Purpose reported; it bars trading on military information.