By admin 
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a policy for employees using prediction markets, with Arizona’s primary election set for next week.
Read more FEMA denies Globe’s major disaster request appeal for deadly 2025 floods
“We don’t want any of our election workers, staffers, volunteers being accused of placing any bets with election outcomes hanging in the balance,” Maricopa County Supervisor Thomas Galvin said.
It’s already against state law in Arizona to wager on elections, but that hasn’t stopped popular prediction markets from letting people put down money on key races in Arizona.
“This is obviously something that a lot of people are paying attention to. Frankly, it’s becoming more popular,” Galvin said.
The policy the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors approved prohibits the county’s roughly 13,000 employees from using nonpublic information to personally profit from prediction markets.
Prediction markets have skyrocketed in popularity over recent months, with many drawing interest to the vast event contracts offered from sports to pop culture to elections.
“That’s a serious concern,” said Arizona Clean Elections Commission Executive Director Tom Collins about the election markets.
On Kalshi, as of Tuesday night, there were 9 markets about Arizona’s upcoming primary election with a total volume of more than $580,000 between them combined.
“The idea was that you don’t want people’s vote to be influenced by money or a financial outcome,” Collins said about the law prohibiting wagering on elections.
Read more New safeguards aren’t stopping copper thieves in Arizona
Earlier this year, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed criminal charges against Kalshi. Her office accused the prediction market platform of operating an illegal gambling and election wagering business in Arizona.
A federal judge halted that case as higher courts debate who has jurisdiction over prediction markets.
“I want people to see around the country that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors cares about issues like this,” Galvin said. “Right now it’s about elections, but it could be another thing. It could be about court cases. It could be about different things happening in other departments that we have in Maricopa County.”
The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, which runs elections in the county, says the policy passed by the Board of Supervisors will also be applied to MCRO employees.
Last week, Gov. Katie Hobbs signed an executive order prohibiting state employees from using confidential information to profit from prediction markets.
See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.
Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.