Pa lawmakers want to ban insider trading in prediction markets

May 7, 2026

Sign Up for the Keystone Labor Report Newsletter

Good afternoon everyone,

It’s Thursday, May 7, and welcome back to another edition of the Keystone Labor Report.

We’re going to keep things short today since I will be travelling to the Allentown area this evening to cover a town hall with local labor leaders and union members.

One song I’ll be listening to on the way out to Allentown is the new single from Scranton’s very own, the Menzingers. You can listen to that here.

Sean Kitchen

Political Correspondent, The Keystone

(Sean Kitchen / The Keystone)

With prediction markets expected to become a $1 trillion industry in the near future, betting platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket are allowing Americans to bet on real-world outcomes that they may never have been able to before.

For instance, on Kalshi, you can place bets on if Democrats will flip the US House and how many seats they will control, if there will be a recession in 2027, or if the Pittsburgh Pirates will make the playoffs for the first time since 2015.

State Rep. Tarik Khan (D-Philadelphia) is getting ready to introduce bipartisan legislation that would make it illegal for those with insider information to profit from these prediction markets and penalize those who do.

“People are betting on sports, politics, the outcomes of things that Trump may do, and we’re seeing that there are insiders who are gaming the system and making thousands and thousands of dollars. It’s a major problem because people on the inside should not be able to profit from their access to power,” Khan said in an interview.

President Donald Trump attempted to persuade US Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) to switch parties and foil US Senate Democrats’ attempt to flip the chamber in the upcoming midterm elections, per Politico.
Republican Treasurer Stacy Garrity’s union endorsements in the 2024 election were called into question following comments made by one of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s allies, per the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission wants to blast a 1,000-foot gap through the Allegheny Mountain in order to save money and bypass a tunnel that is already in use by the turnpike, per Penn Capital Star.

(Sean Kitchen / The Keystone)

It’s been a little more than two months since President Donald Trump launched an unprovoked war on Iran, and gas prices across the commonwealth continue to surge.

According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in Pennsylvania is at $4.69 per gallon. Before the start of the war, prices were hovering around $3.00 per gallon.

US House Rep. Brendan Boyle paid a visit to the Pennsylvania Capitol on Tuesday to talk about rising costs and the effects of Trump’s Medicaid and SNAP cuts. You can watch what he had to say about rising gas prices.

CLICK here to watch Boyle’s remarks on rising gas prices