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Polymarket's Viral Videos Showed People Winning Big, but the Bets Were Fake
The investigation reviewed 1,105 videos and found 778 showed fake bets on clone sites, with none using the live exchange, the Journal said.
- The Wall Street Journal reported on June 21, 2026, that Polymarket paid social media creators to post misleading videos promoting its prediction market using staged bets on counterfeit websites rather than the actual platform.
- Virality, a marketing firm, managed the creator network and paid them only when at least 60% of their audience was based in the United States, despite Polymarket being officially closed to US customers since a 2022 settlement.
- Across 118 videos, creators celebrated nearly $900,000 in fabricated winnings on bets that would have actually lost more than $166,000, with none of the roughly $1.4m in wagers shown on screen being real.
- Polymarket told the Journal it was 'committed to maintaining accurate, fair, and transparent markets' and would audit promotional content, following earlier reports that its marketing chief allegedly used personal PayPal funds to pay over 800 creators.
- Governments are intensifying regulation of prediction markets, with Minnesota banning them last month and Spain blocking access to Polymarket and Kalshi in May, as officials grapple with oversight this year.
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WSJ : Videos of Polymarket 'Winning' Bets Were Bogus
The money looked easy, the trades looked legit, and, the Wall Street Journal reports, almost all of it was fiction. A Journal investigation finds that prediction market Polymarket bankrolled a network of mostly college-age influencers to film themselves "betting" and winning big on the platform—using carbon-copy dummy sites where...
·Miami, United States
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources25
Leaning Left5Leaning Right0Center8Last UpdatedBias Distribution62% Center
Bias Distribution
- 62% of the sources are Center
62% Center
L 38%
C 62%
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