Polymarket criticized over ‘disgusting’ bets on fate of pilots on US jet shot by Iran | US military
Following harsh criticism from a federal lawmaker, online betting platform Polymarket has stopped accepting bets on when the crew of a US fighter jet shot down in Iran can be rescued. He promised to investigate how the market happens.
The criticism came from Massachusetts Democratic representative Seth Moulton, who earned two bronze star medals while serving with the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq from 2003 to 2008, and who published an X post describing Polymarket’s acceptance of bets on the fate of downed pilots as “DISTORY.”
Before Moulton’s mission, Iranian military forces on Friday shot down an F-15E Strike Eagle jet occupied by two US air force members who had been involved in the war against Iran waged by the US and Israel since late February.
The pilot of the plane was rescued within seven hours. Donald Trump announced the rescue of the other crew member in a post on the Truth Social platform just after midnight Sunday.
For a while, Polymarket allowed users to bet on the timing of these recoveries, and most bets would occur by Saturday.
Moulton did not take kindly to learning that the platform allowed such betting. While search and rescue efforts for the downed jet crew continue at full speed, Moulton wrote About X: “Their safety is unknown… And people are betting on whether they will be rescued. It’s DISGUSTING.”
Polymarket’s X account replied To Moulton: “We immediately closed this market because it did not meet our integrity standards. It should not have been published and we are investigating how this evaded our internal security measures.”
In another post, Moulton said Polymarket was still accepting hundreds of war-related bets and that the company should be deactivated, stating that the company’s “standards of integrity are seriously lacking”. At one point during the call, Moulton mentioned that the president’s eldest son and namesake, Donald Trump Jr., is an investor in Polymarket, which the congressman called a “dystopian death market.”
“Reversing this particular bet after I made it may only be the first step,” Moulton said. wrote.
Polymarket did not immediately respond to a request for further comment on Moulton’s reprimand or details of the investigation it has promised to undertake.
The company’s dialogue with Moulton came after some Polymarket users made international news headlines in March by sending threatening messages to an Israeli journalist after some of his reporting on a missile attack near Jerusalem became the focus of an unresolved claim about the war in Iran.
Platforms such as Polymarket, where users can bet on topics ranging from war to elections, entertainment industry awards to sports, have come under congressional scrutiny for accumulating exponentially increasing numbers of punters.
Congressional lawmakers in March introduced A proposal to ban prediction markets from accepting bets on sports or casino-style games. And a separate but similar proposal in March in the name Banning prediction markets for government actions, war, and “rigged events.”
Connecticut’s Democratic U.S. senator, Chris Murphy, said in a statement about the last of the two measures: “When events involving good and evil, life and death, become just another financial product, morality no longer matters and the soul of America is fundamentally corrupt.”
