Polymarket Is Investigating Suspicious Bets on Israeli Election
Polymarket is investigating dozens of suspicious bets made on the Israeli election this week, a spokesman for the company said on Thursday, in what appeared to be the latest example of attempts to manipulate prediction markets.The trades under investigation were placed by hundreds of new accounts, wagering that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party would win the election.Those accounts placed their bets — on who would be prime minister and which party would win the most seats — just before polls closed in Israel on Tuesday.A data analysis firm, Polysights, was among the first to flag the suspicious activity.
“In the last 24 hours our tools picked up massive inflows of YES buys on fresh wallets,” the company posted on social media on Tuesday.“This is definitely worth investigating.”Prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi allow people to wager on everything from foreign elections to who will get married on “Love Is Blind.” The companies have attracted billions of dollars in trades, but their popularity has raised concerns about whether they violate state gambling laws and are being manipulated by users with insider information.In February, the Israeli authorities charged two people with using classified military information to place bets on Polymarket before the country attacked Iran.
In April, three U.S.political candidates were found trying to bet on their own races.
In August, Kalshi barred former Representative George Santos for making a bet about his attendance at President Trump’s State of the Union address six months earlier.Polymarket said it had reported the Israeli activity to law enforcement.Bloomberg earlier reported that the company was investigating.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
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