US Lawmakers Target Polymarket Over Alleged Fake-Profit Marketing to Young Users

Prediction-market platform Polymarket is facing broad pressure from US lawmakers and advocacy groups over allegations that it used manipulated betting results in deceptive marketing.

The Wall Street Journal reported on June 26 that Republican Senator John Curtis and Democratic Senator Adam Schiff sent a letter to CFTC Chairman Brian Quintenz urging an immediate federal investigation into Polymarket’s social-media marketing.

The push came after the Journal reported that Polymarket paid social-media influencers to record betting videos on a fake site and then hired overseas workers to spread the clips in the US. Polymarket has been barred from operating in the US since 2022.

The Journal said it reviewed 1,105 videos made by college-age influencers and found that none disclosed financial backing from Polymarket. About 10% of the videos spliced together old footage or fabricated news headlines to make it appear the creators had made as much as $900,000. Had the bets actually been placed, the creators would instead have lost more than $166,000, the report found. Many of the videos described the trades as free money and encouraged viewers to invest.

In their letter, the senators said Polymarket’s reported conduct “does not resemble a healthy financial market designed for price discovery or hedging risk” and questioned whether the CFTC could properly enforce the law as the federal regulator of gambling-related markets. The agency is separately investigating Polymarket, the Journal said, though it has declined to confirm that publicly. Polymarket said it is conducting an internal audit of promotional content “to support a transparent market.”

President Donald Trump, by contrast, has said the CFTC should have exclusive authority over prediction-market regulation to support the industry, while criticizing politicians who favor state-level oversight. His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is an investor in Polymarket and a paid adviser to rival Kalshi.