In the 14 months since Patrick T. McHenry left the Capitol, he’s had “a total of three days of FOMO.”
Aside from the rare bouts of fear of missing out, the North Carolina Republican and onetime acting speaker pro tempore of the House is content with his life after Congress.
“I get to watch the shenanigans of Congress, and I can laugh about it much more being on the outside,” he said.
He may have relinquished the gavel of the House Financial Services Committee, but he’s still in the middle of one of the most contentious debates facing regulators right now — prediction markets.
And he’s not the only one interested in the issue.
McHenry and his former House colleague Sean Patrick Maloney have both joined a new industry group, the Coalition for Prediction Markets, with Maloney as the president and CEO and McHenry as senior adviser.
For Maloney, a New York Democrat who lost his reelection bid in 2022 to Rep. Mike Lawler, leaving Congress has been a welcome change of pace. After serving a stint in France as the U.S. ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, he spent more time in Europe, which he said he recommends to anyone.
“The greatest joy in my life is when I finish a meeting, sometimes I walk out into the street and there’s nobody waiting for me, and there isn’t a next meeting. And that is a wonderful feeling,” he said.
Another added bonus for the former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair? “I have interactions with my friends that don’t involve asking them for money,” Maloney said.
The duo sees their work with the Coalition for Prediction Markets as a “natural” next step. The coalition — which includes Kalshi, Crypto.com, Coinbase, Robinhood and Underdog — aims to be a unified voice for the growing industry. McHenry calls it “an education effort to policymakers.”
“My hope is there is a clear understanding that this is a well-regulated marketplace and that whatever enhancements Congress wants to pass ensure this market continues to flourish, because the American people like it,” he said.
Prediction markets allow people to trade contracts tied to the outcomes of future events, and their rise has sparked fierce battles over whether they flout regulations around gambling.
Former Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget and acting White House chief of staff during President Donald Trump’s first term, launched a coalition Monday called Gambling Is Not Investing. The group argues that prediction platforms lead to illegal sports betting.
And in Nevada, for example, gaming regulators are going after what many see as unlicensed competition for the Silver State’s casino industry. Last month, a judge denied Kalshi’s request to block the state from taking civil action against it.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael Selig has warned states against intruding on what he sees as his federal turf, saying the CFTC has “exclusive jurisdiction” over prediction markets in a video posted to X last month. (FiscalNote, the parent company of CQ and Roll Call, has announced a product expansion into political prediction markets.)
Ask Maloney and McHenry, and they both have ready answers to the gambling question.
“These are financial markets. In the securities and commodities space, we’ve long had national markets … and I think we have a well-regulated cop on the beat at the CFTC to regulate these markets. The friction with the states, frankly, I think that is natural,” McHenry said.
“What we’re trying to do is have a national marketplace with national consumer protections,” he added.
Maloney said prediction markets are “fundamentally a different product.”
“When you gamble, you’re going in to bet against the casino, and the casino wins when you lose. When you trade on a financial exchange, you have a counterparty, a buyer and a seller for every transaction,” Maloney said.
Notably absent from the coalition’s list of members is Polymarket, which bills itself as the world’s largest prediction market and recently dipped its toe back in the U.S. after a previous settlement with the CFTC. In Maloney’s eyes, “they haven’t, at least to date, bought into the same values and standards that we have.”
So do either of these former lawmakers buy and sell on the prediction markets themselves? Not yet, they said.
“I’d do it tomorrow if I wasn’t in this job,” Maloney said.
“I spent 20 years in Congress around regulating the financial markets, so I did not participate,” McHenry said. “I’ve watched these markets. I am fascinated by them, but I’ve held back.”
While advocates say the markets allow educated members of the public to use their expertise, others worry they’re being abused by government insiders. After a user on Polymarket placed over $30,000 on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro being removed from office by the end of January, for example, the Trump administration conducted its raid and capture of Maduro a few hours later.
Some current members of Congress, like New York Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres, want to spell things out. He has introduced a bill that would prohibit federal elected officials, political appointees, executive branch employees and congressional staff from buying, selling or exchanging prediction market contracts tied to government policy, government action or political outcomes using information that could be gleaned from their jobs.
“The coalition supports Congressman Torres’ bill,” McHenry said. “I agree with him that we need to have additional rules here to ban insider trading.”
Working with the coalition isn’t McHenry’s only gig these days — he’s also a senior adviser at payments firm Stripe, a senior adviser at Lazard, a member of the advisory board at lobbying firm BGR, a senior adviser at Andreessen Horowitz and a distinguished fellow at Georgetown University’s Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy.
When he does get a rare twinge of FOMO, it might involve “seeing my friends get major bills passed into law” or missing the people. “Well, I should say it differently,” he added. “One of the best parts of Congress? The people. One of the worst parts of Congress? The people.”
Working with Maloney at the coalition has been easy, he said, despite their political differences.
“I like Sean. I’ve long liked him. It’s a lot of jokes. It’s two Irish guys, right? I mean, it’s pretty easy to get along with him,” McHenry said.
“The guy wears a bow tie,” Maloney said, referring to the North Carolinian’s typical choice in neckwear. “So let’s just start with that. If you can get past that, you can work on anything together.”
This is part of a recurring series on what former members of Congress are doing in their post-congressional careers.
The post Life After Congress: A prediction market duo appeared first on Roll Call.
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