Predictive market wagering ban added to public safety package that passes House

Don’t call it an omnibus bill. It’s a policy package.

But whatever name one uses, the 81-page public safety policy bill, with its 91 sections and language from more than a dozen other bills passed the House Thursday on a 116-16 vote.

Because the House amended HF3990/SF4760*– and amended it further – the bill must now return to the Senate for concurrence.

Rep. Paul Novotny (R-Elk River), who sponsors HF3990, said there was no horse-trading when putting the package together, meaning there were no bargaining sessions or reciprocal concessions to reach a consensus.

He said every bill selected for inclusion in the package had bipartisan support when they were heard in the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee and other committees.

Notable policy provisions

Here’s a rundown on the plethora of policy provisions now in the package passed by the House.

The bill would amend the authority for the attorney general to issue administrative subpoenas to include information related to a law enforcement investigation of financial crimes and fraud, including fraud involving state-funded or administered programs or services and insurance fraud.

It would limit the use of administrative subpoenas to situations in which there is probable cause to believe that a crime was committed.

The bill would clarify that a crime victim has the right to object to a plea agreement at the plea hearing and that the victim has a right to be present at both a plea hearing and a sentencing hearing.

The bill would authorize disqualifying a person from public employment based on a criminal conviction regardless of whether the applicant shows evidence of rehabilitation and present fitness to perform the duties of the position.

Other provisions include:

• requiring law enforcement agencies deploying a chemical irritant in a building to provide a notice specifying the irritants and whether specialized cleanup or treatment is needed;
• increasing the legal age to purchase and possess kratom from 18 to 21;
• making it a felony to threaten the non-consensual dissemination of private sexual images, punishable up to 15 years in prison;
• requiring inmates to complete court-ordered restitution payments before they can be considered for supervised release; and
• including theft involving gift cards in the organized retail theft statute.

High-profile amendment

An amendment successfully offered by Rep. Emma Greenman (DFL-Mpls) added a high-profile issue to the bill when members adopted language that would ban predictive market wagering.

Such wagering, on websites such as Kalshi and Polymarket, is a peer-to-peer system where participants buy and sell shares based on the likelihood of a future event occurring.

These “shadowy prediction markets” completely circumvent the regulatory safeguards the state has in place for legalized gambling, Greenman said, such as preventing under-age gambling and money-laundering.

“In addition to skirting our laws, these gambling markets are rife with shadowy self-dealing that threatens to corrupt sports, politics and policy-making,” she said, adding the issue has visited the Legislature when a state senator admitted last week to wagering on the outcome of his own election.

“It is time we act,” she said, and the House agreed when it voted to adopt the amendment 72-59.

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The following bills have been incorporated in part or in whole into the public safety policy package bill:

• HF2169 (Schwartz)
• HF2358 (Van Binsbergen)
• HF3155 (Tabke)
• HF3453 (Hanson)
• HF3496 (Harder)
• HF3768 (Curran)
• HF3769 (Curran)
• HF3771 (Johnson, P.)
• HF3782 (Moller)
• HF3825 (Repinski)
• HF3826 (Witte)
• HF3827 (Duran)
• HF3870 (Curran)
• HF3946 (Moller)
• HF3990 (Novotny)
• HF4151 (Witte)