Polymarket set up a fake website for fake bets and then paid influencers to create videos of "huge" "wins" that weren't real. Scandalous behavior and yet more evidence these prediction markets are a growing blight on our society. From the Wall Street Journal:
In its push to draw users to its unregulated platform, Polymarket has flooded social media with videos like Makihara’s, which appear genuine at first glance. In reality, Polymarket built near-perfect copies of its website, then instructed creators to make simulated trades on those dummy sites and hide that they were being paid by Polymarket.
To get the videos to go viral, Polymarket has recruited a social-media army to copy and re-post creators’ footage. Though the New York-based company has been banned from offering its primary crypto platform in the U.S. since 2022, the social-media creators are paid to specifically target U.S. users, who can still access the site with a virtual private network.
They Looked Like They Were Getting Rich on Polymarket—but None of It Was Real · wsj.comThe prediction market has flooded social media with deceptive videos by paid creators. ‘Is this just free money?’