Playing Election-Related Prediction Markets Will be a Felony in Wisconsin
Jesse M. Cox Published 20/07/2026
If you live in Wisconsin and are going to be voting in the 2026 midterm elections, don't bet on it. That's the warning being issued by the Wisconsin Elections Committee (WEC) to the state's eligible voters. Anyone who makes an election trade on a prediction market site such as Kalshi or Polymarket and then votes in the same election will be committing a felony.
A criminal statute, rather than a civil enforcement action. means that individual traders and not just the platforms on which they are making those trades could be opening themselves up to prison exposure. This will be the first federal election in which licensed rediction markets are operating legally in the US.
WEC issues a warning to all registered voters in the state
WEC, a bipartisan committee, announced the prediction market/voting conundrum earlier this month. While the November 2026 midterms may be drawing most of the attention, Wisconsin is holding primary elections in August. And the same legal rules apply to those votes.
“Many voters may not know that they risk making themselves ineligible to vote in Wisconsin if they place a bet on a prediction market for an election-dependent outcome,” Angie Sharpe, Legal Counsel with the WEC, told Spectrum News.
Right now, customers of prediction market sites like Kalshi and Polymarket are able to wager on several different Wisconsin elections. These include races for governor, attorney general, and Congress.
Operating in a gray area, these prediction market platforms aren’t technically considered betting sites. That's because users are answering yes-or-no questions instead of wagering based on odds. The sites are federally regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Prediction market sites currently operate legally in Wisconsin.
WEC Commissioner issues a stark warning
Elections Commissioner Ann Jacobs recently posted on social media that ‘if you bet on an election, you cannot vote in that election’.
The elections commission is planning on sending out information to voters soon. It's designed to discourage them from wagering on either the August primary or the November general election.
“We don’t allow bribes for the same reason we want people to vote for the right reasons, not the wrong ones,” Jacobs said. “If you’re voting because you think you’re going to make money instead of for who should be the best candidate, that’s bad.
"You want people who have the ability to vote, to vote based upon who they believe is the best person for the job, not to line their pocketbooks.”
Wisconsin people could be committing voter fraud
The WEC adopted these new principles of guidance late last week. Voters who make prediction market trades on the election would be committing election fraud. That's a felony offense.
There's further damage to be done on top of the potential felony charge. Voters caught making election trades via prediction market sites could also risk having their vote thrown out.
In the US legal and regulated market, state-regulated sports betting sites are prohibited from offering betting markets on elections. The federally regulated prediction markets enforce no such restrictions.
“It’s just pervasive, and it’s pervasive especially among men; that’s the huge audience for this,” WEC chair Don Millis said. “I think we want to make sure that people realize that if you get involved and start betting on this, you could compromise your ability to vote, and you could be committing a felony.”