Polymarket removes bet on rescue mission in Iran

Polymarket has removed a forum about the US military rescue mission due to political pressure, in the latest sign of increased scrutiny around its prediction markets.

Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., condemned the Polymarket page that allowed users to place bets on which day the U.S. would confirm the rescue of two airmen after a U.S. F-15E fighter jet was shot down over Iran. In an X post, the MP described the page as “DISTORY”.

“They could be your neighbor, your friend, your family member,” Moulton said. wrote on Friday. “And people are betting on whether they will be rescued.”

One response to xPolymarket said: “We immediately closed this market as it did not meet our integrity standards.”

“It should not have been published and we are investigating how this bypassed our internal security measures,” Polymarket wrote.

Polymarket in a separate X post in question “it does not make money or charge any fees in any geopolitical market.”

U.S. and Iranian military forces are searching for a missing American airman after an F-15E fighter jet was shot down over Iran on Friday. One member of the crew was rescued, the fate of the other is unknown.

Last month, Moulton banned his staff from using prediction market platforms such as Polymarket or Kalshi; It’s a policy his office believes is the first of its kind in Congress.

“The constituents we serve should trust us to make decisions based on the right thing to do for our nation, not on how bets will turn out,” Moulton said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday.

Moulton also said in

Requests for comment from Moulton and Trump Jr. were not immediately returned to CNBC.

The Massachusetts lawmaker is part of a growing chorus of voices calling for tighter oversight of these betting platforms as interest grows in Washington.

A group of Democrats in Congress introduced legislation late last month that would ban prediction markets from allowing betting on elections, war and government actions, as well as sports.

In February, six Democratic senators called on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to clarify that any contracts involving the death of an individual would be banned. These contracts “carry dangerous national security risks,” the lawmakers wrote.

The CFTC announced Thursday that it would file lawsuits against three states over what it sees as efforts to circumvent the agency’s sole regulatory authority over prediction markets.

The NFL also asked prediction market operators to keep certain event contracts that the league considers “objectionable bets” off their platforms. The league listed examples of event contracts that could be easily manipulated, inherently undesirable, management-related and known in advance, and asked operators to refrain from offering such swaps.

— CNBC’s Dan Mangan, Azhar Sukri and Luke Fountain contributed to this report.

Disclosure: CNBC and Kalshi have a business relationship that includes customer acquisition and minority investment.