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(NEW YORK) -- On prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket, bettors can put money on dozens of election-related bets in Maryland, from the winner of the upcoming gubernatorial race to the margin of victory in the state's 6th Congressional District. 

For most Americans, the Maryland elections are fair game -- races in the state are already generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in trading volume on the major prediction markets. But not for residents of Maryland, which is one of a handful of states that ban election betting. And Jared DeMaranis, the state's election administrator, plans to enforce it. 

"If we have credible information about illegalities and it's not within our civil citation authorities, we will of course refer those matters to the office of the state prosecutor for enforcement," DeMaranis told ABC News. "This is going to be a growing issue and something that we need to stop in its infancy." 

Federal regulators and the courts have given Americans the green light to wager on elections, prompting a frenzy of wagering on the outcomes of races, the likelihood of candidates dropping out, the amount of voter turnout, and more. But more than half of U.S. states have existing laws on the books that limit or restrict the practice, according to research from the Pew Research Center -- and now state leaders are sorting out how exactly to enforce those rules. 

Maryland, Texas and Arizona are among those states with laws explicitly banning election betting. And in Wisconsin, residents cannot cast ballots in elections in which they have placed a "bet or wager depending upon the result of the election," according to state law. 

Ann Jacobs, the chair of the Wisconsin Election Commission, said Wisconsinites who bet on an election and then vote in it could have their vote challenged or face voter fraud charges. Jacobs acknowledged that it would be a difficult rule to enforce, but stood by the spirit of the law. 

"The policy behind saying, 'You can bet or you can vote, but you can't do both,' is 100% a sound policy," Jacobs said. "We want people to vote based on their belief that the person they are voting for is going to be the best for their community ... it just makes sense." 

Arizona officials have focused their efforts on the platforms themselves. The state's attorney general filed criminal charges against Kalshi earlier this year claiming the platform operated an illegal, unlicensed gambling business and accepted unlawful wagers from Arizona residents.

In April, a federal judge blocked Arizona from continuing its criminal case. The injunction followed a lawsuit against the state by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission -- the federal regulator overseeing prediction markets -- which argued that prediction markets fall under federal oversight rather than state gambling regulations.

The Arizona attorney general's office declined to comment on the active case or how it will address potential election betting this season. 

Officials in Texas, another state with a law banning election betting, did not respond to inquiries from ABC News. But Christopher McGinn, the executive director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials, said he and other administrators are engaged in early discussions about how to handle prediction markets, particularly the likelihood that individuals with a financial stake in the outcome of an election may have "more incentive to attempt to manipulate [elections], or spread misinformation."

Prediction market advocates believe election-related event contracts strengthen political forecasting and can predict outcomes with greater accuracy than traditional polls. But many election experts warn that election wagering could threaten to compromise the integrity of elections or incentivize offenders to profit from insider information. 

"I can't think of all of the ways that people might try to make money off of election outcomes, but I'm sure there are enterprising people who will come up with all kinds of things," said Rick Hasen, an expert in election law at the University of California-Los Angeles. "We don't want to start thinking of elections as a financial incentive. The potential for manipulation is too great." 

Legalized election betting in the U.S. is a new phenomenon. In 2024, Kalshi prevailed in a lawsuit that allowed it to offer event contracts for politics and elections. More recently, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed new rules that classified elections "as contests, not gaming," further clearing the way for platforms to offer election-related wagers. 

Those developments present state officials with a challenge: How can they enforce state-level bans on election betting without support from federal regulators or the platforms themselves? The answer for some, including Maryland, is to pursue the individuals. 

"Right now, it's on the person. The person that places the wager on the platform is doing the illegality," said DeMaranis, the Maryland elections chief, adding that lawmakers will eventually "need to clarify the role of those platforms to make sure they're liable for offering monetary incentives on elections." 

Matthew Wein, a former Homeland Security official, said a similar dynamic emerged with social media giants over the past decade. In the absence of a crackdown on platforms, authorities were left to pursue users "for doing things they shouldn't have been doing on the platforms, but not against the platforms themselves." 

"And this seems to be heading in the same direction with prediction markets," said Wein, who now authors a gambling newsletter called "Secure Stakes." 

A Polymarket spokesperson said states with election betting bans "run counter to the established framework for regulating prediction markets."

"We look forward to addressing these claims through the appropriate legal process," the spokesperson said.

A Kalshi spokesperson said the company's services are "federally regulated and have stock-market-grade systems for identifying and addressing market manipulation." 

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., lawmakers continue to scrutinize prediction market platforms. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., have introduced legislation that would prohibit event contracts on election outcomes, which they said "spreads civic cynicism and distrust in our democratic institutions." 

DeMaranis said he has struggled to instill a sense of urgency among the nation's election officials, many of whom he said have never heard of prediction markets.

The effort, he said, has left him feeling like the "canary in the coal mine." 

"It's about the integrity and public trust of the electoral process," DeMaranis said. "When you have people that are engaging in election-related wagering, the integrity of the entire process now comes into question." 

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(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump has called for the Department of Justice to "immediately start looking into" oil companies as he accused them of price gouging and not lowering the "price at the pump" fast enough in a message on social media.

“The big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Those prices are dropping like a rock! In other words, customers are being ‘gouged.’”

“I have instructed the DOJ to immediately start looking into this,” Trump continued. “Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I’m seeing!”

A DOJ spokesperson responded to Trump's post, telling ABC News that "The price of fuel is not only a national security issue, it impacts  the wallet of every American. We will always commit to ensuring affordability in this nation."

Trump’s call for the investigation comes amid reports of ships beginning to move oil and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) through the Strait of Hormuz.

Oil prices have continued to lower recently as peace talks between the United States and Iran have been taking place. U.S. oil is trading at $70.13 a barrel -- down 4.18% -- and global oil is trading at $73.74 -- down 4.28%. Oil is now close to where it was before the war began -- U.S. oil ended at $67 a barrel the Friday before the war started.

The Treasury's move allowing more Iranian oil onto the market until Aug. 21 and reports there was more traffic in the Strait of Hormuz are helping push oil prices lower.

The average price of a gallon of regular gas is $3.90, down 9 cents from last week’s average, according to GasBuddy.

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said Sunday that oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is "already back to normal" after the U.S. and Iran signed a preliminary agreement to reopen the critical waterway while negotiators spend the next two months trying to work out yet-to-be-resolved nuclear issues.

"I'm long out of the business of predicting oil or gasoline prices, but they will continue to head down. Flows of oil and natural gas through the straits have already returned to normal, and they will continue that way whatever happens with the negotiations with the Iranians," Wright said on ABC News' "This Week." "We've got growing American production, surging production in Venezuela. We've got cooperation with all the other energy producers of the world. So, I think Americans can expect continued declines in energy prices."

U.S. and Iranian leaders signed a memorandum of understanding last week that appears to have broken the monthslong stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway in the Gulf region through which around 20% of the global oil supply normally transits to enter the market.

Energy prices spiked in May, with U.S. gas prices averaging $4.56 per gallon over the month, according to Gas Buddy.

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(HUNT, Texas) -- Camp Mystic, the Christian all-girls sleepaway camp, filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, according to court records. 

The Chapter 11 filing comes nearly a year after a deadly flood killed 25 girls and two teen counselors at the camp's Guadalupe River location, which is located in the Texas Hill Country.

According to the Wednesday filing, Camp Mystic has a debt exceeding $10 million. 

Paul Yetter, an attorney representing seven victims' families, said in a statement Wednesday, "Bankruptcy will not stop all responsible parties from being held accountable."

"These innocent girls deserve justice," he added.

In April, Camp Mystic said it had planned to welcome more than 800 girls to its Cypress Lake location this summer before withdrawing its application.

Families of the flood victims and some officials, including Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, had called on the Texas Department of State Health Services to block Camp Mystic's license for the summer.

Patrick contended the camp shouldn't reopen until the flood was fully investigated.

The parents of one of the deceased campers -- 8-year-old Cile Steward, whose body has yet to be recovered after she was swept away in the Guadalupe River -- have also been vocal about the camp not reopening while their daughter remains missing.

Casey Garrett, a Houston attorney hired by the state legislature to investigate the deadly flood, presented a review of the camp's policies in April based on interviews with approximately 150 people, including campers, counselors, the camp's owners and the victims' families.

The attorney said there was inadequate training or drills for counselors and campers regarding a flood threat.

A written report of the investigation's findings is expected later this year, The Associated Press reported.

The Texas Rangers have also opened a criminal investigation of Camp Mystic, Patrick said.

Families of the victims have also filed a lawsuit against the camp.

In a previous statement to ABC News in response to the lawsuits filed by families, Camp Mystic said, "We continue to pray for the grieving families and ask for God's healing and comfort."

Jeff Ray, legal counsel for Camp Mystic, said in a statement, "We intend to demonstrate and prove that this sudden surge of floodwaters far exceeded any previous flood in the area by several magnitudes, that it was unexpected and that no adequate warning systems existed in the area."

"We disagree with several accusations and misinformation in the legal filings regarding the actions of Camp Mystic and Dick Eastland, who lost his life as well. We will thoroughly respond to these accusations in due course," Ray added.

-ABC News' Olivia Osteen, Meredith Deliso and Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) -- Frank Carone, a former chief of staff to ex-New York Mayor Eric Adams, was arrested on Wednesday morning along with his brother Anthony and two others as part of a federal bribery case, according to federal investigators.

While serving as chief of staff, Frank Carone allegedly "agreed to accept a series of bribe payments" as part of a scheme to "exploit the city's migrant crisis for profit," according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court.

In 2022, during the influx of migrants into New York, the city needed to rent entire hotels to accommodate asylum-seekers using emergency contracts.

Frank Carone allegedly accepted $120,000 in bribes from two co-defendants, Crystal Chen and Yan Po Zhu, in exchange for steering a multimillion-dollar emergency contract to a Microtel in Long Island City, Queens, that they controlled, federal prosecutors alleged.

To conceal the bribes, the payments were allegedly funneled through an account that Frank Carone's brother, Anthony Carone, controlled, the indictment said. 

"In total, Zhu and Chen paid approximately $120,000 to F. Carone in exchange for an Emergency Shelter Contract for the Microtel, which was laundered through the Law Firm #2 account by A. Carone and his co-defendants," the indictment said.

The indictment included photographs of Zhu and Frank Carone socializing at Zhu's Long Island home in June 2022, a time when the indictment said Zhu and Chen's efforts to secure an Emergency Shelter Contract through other means were stalling. 

"Zhu leveraged his burgeoning personal relationship with the defendant, Frank V. Carone," the indictment said.

The city ultimately awarded Microtel a nearly $7 million contract, even though it was smaller than another Long Island City hotel under consideration. 

The indictment quoted an unnamed city employee who allegedly "lamented that replacing the professional's staff's recommendations with the Microtel 'meant a loss of 75 units,' which would necessitate opening more locations to make up the difference."

The defendants are charged with 13 counts, including conspiracy, federal program bribery and obstruction. All four defendants pleaded not guilty during a hearing Wednesday and were released on bond with restrictions on travel and communications.

Prosecutor Sara Winik singled out Frank Carone during the hearing.

"Frank Carone was entrusted to run our city government," Winik told the judge, adding that he "put his own status" above his duties, leveraging the need for emergency migrant housing to accept $120,000 in bribe payments. 

Frank Carone was released on a $2 million bond secured by his property in Boca Raton, Florida and cash, records show. 

Frank Carone helped with Adams' transition into office in January 2022 and served as the mayor's chief of staff until December that year, when he departed the administration.

As he departed, he said that in his position it had been an "honor keeping the trains running for this administration," according to a press release at the time.

Arthur Aidala, an attorney representing Frank Carone, said in a statement to ABC News that Frank Carone was notified that he was under federal investigation three years ago and denied the allegations.

"Frank Carone was part of an administration that publicly challenged what it viewed as the previous White House's dangerous immigration policies and their harmful impact on New York City," Aidala said in a statement to ABC News. "Following an extensive three-year investigation that examined numerous aspects of Mr. Carone's personal and professional life, prosecutors ultimately brought these charges."

"Mr. Carone maintains his innocence and looks forward to addressing these allegations through the legal process. He is confident that the facts will demonstrate that he acted lawfully and appropriately at all times," Aidala added.

Attorney information for the other defendants was not immediately available.

Todd Shapiro, a spokesperson for former Mayor Adams, said in a statement that his "prayers are with [Carone's] family"

"Frank Carone has dedicated decades of his life to public service, the legal profession, and helping countless individuals, businesses, and charitable organizations throughout New York," he said.

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(NEW YORK) -- The FBI and New York Police Department conducted searches on Wednesday morning at various locations around the city as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged corruption at the nation's largest police department.

The investigation is targeting current and former police executives, sources familiar with it told ABC News.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch issued a statement confirming the searches, saying the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau was working alongside the FBI in executing search warrants "as part of a criminal investigation being pursued by the NYPD, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York."

"The investigation is ongoing and concerns conduct by former and current members of the NYPD," she said.

The investigation is examining, among other things, promotions and assignments and how they were carried out, the sources said. Tisch in her statement did not identify potential suspects or charges.

"When I became Police Commissioner, I promised New Yorkers that under my leadership the NYPD would conduct itself with integrity and that there would be a thorough investigation of any claim that members of service failed to meet that standard," Tisch said. "This investigation and our actions this morning are part of the ongoing effort to fulfill that commitment and hold the Department to its highest ideals."

The investigation was targeting the current chief of Manhattan South, Jimmy McCarthy, who has been placed on modified duty, according to the NYPD. Another target is the department’s former chief spokesman, Tarik Sheppard, sources said.

FBI agents were spotted outside the Brooklyn home of Jeffrey Maddrey, formerly chief of Department, the highest ranking uniformed officer. It was not immediately clear whether Maddrey was a part of the investigation

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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