FBI Raids Home of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan

(www.axios.com)

249 points jaboutboul | 1 comments | 13 Nov 24 21:29 UTC | HN request time: 0.235s | source

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legitster ◴[13 Nov 24 21:35 UTC] No.42130253[source]▶

Obviously there are no details yet, but I suspect it's as simple as:

- Polymarket is still very illegal in the US

- Lol. We all know it's easy to get around that

- If the CEO knew or was complicit in US citizens breaking laws, he could be in trouble. And if there was evidence he was encouraging it, he could be in big trouble

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orblivion ◴[13 Nov 24 23:03 UTC] No.42131193[source]▶

>>42130253 #

Kalshi got the goahead from an appeals court to list election bets. I think Robinhood added election bets soonafter. Is there a reason that wouldn't apply to Polymarket? Granted, Polymarket was operating before that ruling.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-federal-court-upholds-rulin...

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1. caeril ◴[14 Nov 24 13:44 UTC] No.42136073[source]▶

>>42131193 #

Yes, because Polymarket offers sports markets, which are still illegal in the US (for US users, anyway). Kalshi has been careful to offer markets in basically everything except sports.

It should be obvious what happened here: Polymarket has been offering grey or black markets to users, using only IP address as the discriminator, which is very easy to work around. They've operated under the Feds' radar for quite some time, and the Feds noticed them after they started getting significant press regarding the election.

The election is the reason they got noticed, but the likely crime itself is sports, not elections.

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