Senators Urge End to Online Bets on Wildfires
The senators want common-sense guardrails after more than $1.2 million was wagered on wildfire outcomes, and they gave the CFTC until Aug. 14 to respond.
- California Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, alongside seven other senators, sent a formal letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission calling for a ban on wildfire-related contracts.
- Legislators acted after platforms like Polymarket hosted markets during the 2025 Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles County, where 31 people died and over 16,000 structures were destroyed, generating over $1.2 million in trades.
- The letter stated that "offering bets on destructive wildfires threatens to minimize communities' suffering," arguing the practice creates "perverse incentives" that could motivate individuals to start fires to profit.
- Padilla and Schiff requested the CFTC provide guidance or planned enforcement regarding these contracts by August 14, seeking common-sense guardrails to prevent profiting as wildfires threaten communities.
- While Polymarket defended the practice as providing information, Ann Skeet, senior director of leadership ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, warned the practice creates ethical concerns about incentivizing arson during the record-breaking fire season.
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11 Articles
‘Profiting off misery’: Lawmakers push back on Polymarket bets on deadly L.A. wildfires
Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff are among the elected officials pushing back against prediction market platforms after more than $1 million was wagered on the devastating, deadly 2025 earthquakes, whose impacts continue to reverberate.
‘Profiting off misery.' Lawmakers push back on Polymarket bets on deadly LA wildfires
Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff are among the elected officials pushing back against prediction market platforms after more than $1 million was wagered on the devastating, deadly 2025 earthquakes, whose impacts continue to reverberate.
California Senators Demand Ban on Wildfire Bets
(KMJ) A group of US Senators led by those from California are calling on online trading platforms to stop offering betting markets tied to wildfires, arguing the practice profits from disaster and could create harmful incentives to start wildfires. The sites allow users to bet on where fires will burn next and other aspects of fires that do burn. More than $1.2 million in bets were placed during the 2025 Palisades and Eaton wildfires in Los A…
Senators urge halt to wildfire betting markets after $1.2M in bets placed during 2025 SoCal fires
California Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, along with seven other U.S. senators, are calling on online trading platforms to stop offering betting markets tied to wildfires, arguing that the practice profits from disaster and could create harmful incentives.
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