Hegseth bans Pentagon staff from wagering on classified military plans

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a directive on October 20 ordering military personnel to stop using nonpublic information for financial wagers. The memo, titled "Do Not Compromise Military Operations for Personal Financial Gain," warns that personal betting can expose operational details to foreign adversaries.

The instruction was sent to senior Pentagon officials, heads of Combatant Commands, and directors of Defense Department field activities. It prohibits any financial transaction on platforms that rely on information not yet available to the public. This ban applies to both classified and unclassified data, covering traditional betting services and prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi.

The order follows a specific incident in April involving a US Army soldier. The soldier was arrested and charged with using confidential information to place $410,000 in bets on Polymarket. Those wagers concerned the timing of the military's capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

A separate report from the Anti-Corruption Data Collective identified a wider pattern of suspicious activity. In August, the group found 152 wallets that placed longshot bets on military and defense markets. These accounts collectively won $8 million. Hegseth’s memo cites these figures to illustrate the scale of the risk.

Hegseth argued that hostile intelligence services monitor these markets to gain insights. He wrote that when a service member or civilian executes a transaction tied to a military outcome, they create a signal. Adversaries can then aggregate and correlate these signals to anticipate American movements, targets, and timing.

The memo emphasizes the human cost of such leaks. Hegseth stated that the lives of service members depend on the enemy not knowing what is coming. He added that personnel who carry the flag into harm's way deserve a force that protects them, rather than one that exposes them for personal financial gain.

The directive frames betting as a threat to operational judgment. Hegseth’s message to commanders is that personal financial stakes in military outcomes can compromise operations. The rule takes effect immediately for all department personnel.