Online election prediction platform Polymarket has faced criticism after a report stated that the online firm was providing American social media users with election betting services. Despite not being allowed to provide the betting service to United States residents, Polymarket has reportedly been employing several social media influencers to advertise the use of the platform through betting on various political outcome matters, such as which of the next U.S. presidents will emerge victorious in their contest.
In September, Armand Saramout, Polymarket’s Senior Growth Director, was reportedly beginning the search for U.S.-based influencers to sponsor. Since then, sponsored posts with the hashtags #PMPartner and #PolymarketPartner have been appearing on social media, showing election predictions that some users might misconstrue as polling data. The ads show odds based on user bets rather than public opinion, often displaying former President Donald Trump leading Vice President Kamala Harris.
Polymarket chief executive Shayne Coplan clarified all this in a statement and said that numbers on that platform are not poll results but rather the view of the participants. “The odds are market prices, not polls,” Coplan said for people to get clear about bet odds and poll results.
Some ads on platforms like Instagram and X, formerly Twitter, argue that the probability of Polymarket is more accurate than a poll. Polymarket has spent over $50,000 in election-related ads on Meta alone, which received millions of views. The approach has been widely panned because Polymarket has faced legal challenges in the past; last year, it was fined $1.4 million by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for illegal betting in the United States.
Although these ads do not directly ask Americans to gamble, they lack disclaimers stating that the platforms do not allow gambling in the United States. Critics argue that such ambiguous messaging could make American users believe that the platforms are lawful and for a specific purpose.
Source Credit: Bloomberg
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