An account trading under the username “Magamyman” made more than $553,000 placing bets on the prediction market Polymarket that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would be out of power just before an Israeli strike killed him on Saturday.

…Under U.S. commodity trading laws, making trades based on death and war are illegal, since those kinds of bets create a financial reward for violence, human suffering and geopolitical instability.

  • CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
    6·
    11 days ago

    From the article

    Most prediction markets, which have surged in popularity in recent months, are federally regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The agency views this new-fangled form of betting a “futures contract,” not a type of gambling.