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US Prosecutors Close Probe Into Polymarket Betting Website

(Tuesday July 15, 2025 @05:30PM (BeauHD) from the changing-regulatory-regime dept.)


U.S. prosecutors and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have officially [1]closed their investigations into Polymarket , the decentralized, blockchain-powered prediction market platform where users bet with real cryptocurrency on the outcomes of future events. "The DOJ was investigating Polymarket last year, reportedly for allowing U.S. users to place bets on the site despite Polymarket being required to block U.S. traders," reports CoinDesk.

The FBI [2]raided Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan's Manhattan apartment last November, seizing his phone and electronic devices. A source close to the matter told The New York Post it was politically motivated due to Polymarket's successful prediction of Trump's election win. It's "grand political theater at its worst," the source said. "They could have asked his lawyer for any of these things. Instead, they staged a so-called raid so they can leak it to the media and use it for obvious political reasons."



[1] https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/07/15/us-prosecutors-cftc-drop-polymarket-investigations

[2] https://politics.slashdot.org/story/24/11/14/0056250/fbi-seizes-polymarket-ceos-phone-electronics-after-betting-platform-predicts-trump-win



Successfully predicting Trump's election win (Score:2)

by Registered Coward v2 ( 447531 )

That seems to be the main qualification for a spot in the administration, not a raid. Someone must have misread a memo...

Re: (Score:3)

by ChunderDownunder ( 709234 )

Uh, that was in 2024.

Investigation closed in 2025 via the new administration.

Victim complex to the moon! (Score:4, Informative)

by ihavesaxwithcollies ( 10441708 )

> CEO Shayne Coplan's Manhattan apartment last November, seizing his phone and electronic devices. A source close to the matter told The New York Post it was politically motivated due to Polymarket's successful prediction of Trump's election win.

Do people actually believe this bullshit? Politically motivated because you said trump would win?

> "The DOJ was investigating Polymarket last year, reportedly for allowing U.S. users to place bets on the site despite Polymarket being required to block U.S. traders," reports CoinDesk.

That could be true if you also didn't break the law by taking bets on it at the same time. As usual with trump, crime is a-ok as long as you bribe the man.

Hey, if profit is your only criterion... (Score:2)

by shanen ( 462549 )

Then you should invest in gambling websites. You can't lose if you're on the side of the house.

Oh, wait. Now I'm remember how a certain Yuge Orange Buffoon (YOB) managed a couple of casinos into the dirt...

But seriously, folks, the applied psychologists have this one in the bag. As in the gamblers' testicles in the bag. Just finished a somewhat relevant book called The Choice Factory by Richard Shotton. He's mostly focusing on selling garbage, and he carefully steered clear of gambling, but he still cross

CoinDesk verified2 U.S.-based traders placed bets (Score:3)

by tekram ( 8023518 )

CoinDesk verified that at least two U.S.-based traders were able to place bets on Polymarket last year.

"More broadly, the U.S. regulatory regime has changed its approach to digital assets since Donald Trump became president for a second term. The Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped over a dozen investigations and active court cases against crypto firms, while banking regulators have eased their scrutiny of financial services firms that want to engage in crypto activities."

Re: (Score:3)

by OrangAsm ( 678078 )

It's not fraud, everyone does it, it's just business. -paraphrasing some Orange dude, probably.

Year, n.:
A period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments.
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"