FBI Raids Home of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan

&gt; <i>&quot;This is obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election,&quot; a Polymarket spokesperson tells Axios.</i><p>When I saw that statement, from a company spokesperson, it was striking.<p>Is it now respectable and advisable for a corporation to make official statements like this?

If this were aimed at Polymarket and their betting activities, then their lawyers would be getting subpoenas and the like, and a raid on their president would most likely be in concert with raids on their offices. AFAICT, it was only his person targeted.<p>That the FBI raided the home of an individual most likely means a criminal investigation of that person, for a federal crime or a crime that crosses state boundaries.

Obviously there are no details yet, but I suspect it&#x27;s as simple as:<p>- Polymarket is still very illegal in the US<p>- Lol. We all know it&#x27;s easy to get around that<p>- If the CEO knew or was complicit in US citizens breaking laws, he could be in trouble. And if there was evidence he was <i>encouraging</i> it, he could be in big trouble

As a former user of in-trade and more recently of poly market, it is so annoying that there are laws against these sites. They serve an incredibly important function: letting people learn what’s happening in the world around us by observing a single number (e.g. % win probability).<p>I most receently used the site yesterday to see what the incumbent Australian government’s reelection chances are after they tabled ‘ID and age requirements to use social media’ laws, but polymarket didn’t seem to have Australian politics odds, so I was left using oddschecker, which is inferior due to the annoying way it displays odds and it not storing historical data.

He’ll get pardoned. It’s a Thiel company.

I still don&#x27;t understand the Polymarket business model. Why take the legal risk of $3 billion in volume as an unlicensed commodities exchange if you&#x27;re not even going to get paid for it? 1% would be $30,000,000!

According to the NY Post they came in at 6am this morning and seized his phone and other electronics: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nypost.com&#x2F;2024&#x2F;11&#x2F;13&#x2F;business&#x2F;fbi-seizes-polymarket-ceos-phone-electronics-after-betting-platform-predicts-trump-win-source&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nypost.com&#x2F;2024&#x2F;11&#x2F;13&#x2F;business&#x2F;fbi-seizes-polymarket...</a>

The most likely explanation is that the issue is not election related (for example, they knowingly allowed US bettors), but that they waited until after the election to avoid even the appearance of interfering in the election

We clearly don&#x27;t have enough information about what went down, but betting on political outcomes should be legal. In my opinion, at least. If you can bet on a sports game, you should be allowed to bet on an election.

I thought thid would happen when I see Kalshi launched an almost exact copy of Polymarket but claiming following US laws. This will follow the path of Binance.

Dang - can comments from the previously flagged discussion be merged in?<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=42129791">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=42129791</a>

Earlier: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=42129791">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=42129791</a>

No commentary here just found it interesting that Mark Cuban recently said he was an investor in Polymarket.

&gt;This is obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election<p>I don&#x27;t even understand what the conspiracy theory is here. Why would that be something the Biden administration would seek retribution for? And even it were, how would they possibly achieve it before the new administration takes office?

Can we please stop calling them &quot;prediction markets&quot;. This only legitimizes what they really are, &quot;gambling exchanges&quot;.

That looks interesting

Good? These gambling machines are predatory and destructive institutions and needed to be shut down a long time ago. Everything a casino touches turns into hyper-capitalistic dystopia, they are the wealthy elites&#x27; worst exploitation, distilled and refined into a poison.<p>And now they are trying to play with society from the top-down by rebranding as &quot;prediction markets for everything&quot;, not only pretending to sell a crystal ball but also setting up the incentives for those at the top of the financial system to destroy society and bet on the destruction of society at the same time. I say: shatter their poker chips, dissolve the house, don&#x27;t allow them to accumulate any more of this type of power.

For context, the Biden administration has systematically harassed crypto startups these 4 years.<p>Typically they get &quot;debanked&quot; without explanation, and it&#x27;s really hard to run a startup without a bank account...<p>This podcast with a16z co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz tells the stories: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;g4jWb-0nj44?si=_hK92xyF56lG0ezd&amp;t=100" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;g4jWb-0nj44?si=_hK92xyF56lG0ezd&amp;t=100</a>

It’s sad that something based on the Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki is being politicized as gambling. It’s crucial that we have prediction markets so that we can better understand the risks of things happening in our world.

I think the key factor here is that the website allowed Americans to bet on the political market. Which I still don&#x27;t quite understand, the FBI waiting until after the election for this. Why didn&#x27;t they go after them sooner?<p>Feels wrong.