US investigation into Polymarket dropped
Investigation by the Department of Justice and Commodity Futures Trading Commission into banned operator Polymarket has reportedly halted.
Key Points
- Investigation into whether Polymarket had breached the terms of its ban on operating in the US appears to have been dropped
- Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Department of Justice had launched probe to see if the company allowed US players to bet on presidential election
- Polymarket has been banned from operating in the US since 2022
Polymarket has been under the magnifying glass in the US and abroad in recent months, but some of that pressure may have just been relieved.
The prediction market operator faced allegations that it had been operating in the US despite being banned from doing so.
It is suggested however that the prosecutors have contacted Polymarket in the last month to inform it that the case has been closed.
The investigation into the crypto-powered gambling website was initiated during the final ebbs of the Biden administration by the US Justice Department (DoJ) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Polymarket has not commented as of yet, and the conclusion of the probes has not been announced officially by either of the prosecuting bodies.
Multiple investigations into crypto companies and prediction betting sites have been wound up since Donald Trump’s second stint in the Whitehouse began.
This year, the CFTC also dropped the action it was taking against Kalshi on bets around the US Election.
Good to know: The legality of prediction market betting in France is a murky subject and Polymarket had to suspend betting in the country last year when the Autorité Nationale des Jeux began an investigation into whether their operations complied with French law
The ban on Polymarket operating in the US was imposed in 2022 after it failed to attain a license before allowing US users to bet on certain political and business outcomes.
The company paid out a $1.4m settlement and at the time the CFTC stated that that the platform had: “Failed to obtain designation as a designated contract market or registration as a swap execution facility.”
In the first week of the current administration, the FBI reportedly raided the home of Polymarket’s CEO Shayne Coplan to try and verify concerns that the company was ignoring the ban.
The dropping of these charges could revive the possibility of Polymarket re-entering the US market legitimately in the future.
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