Israeli Soldiers Accused of Using Polymarket To Bet on Strikes
3 115An anonymous reader shares a report: Israel has arrested several people, including army reservists, for allegedly using classified information to place bets on Israeli military operations on Polymarket. Shin Bet, the country's internal security agency, said Thursday the suspects used information they had come across during their military service to inform their bets.
One of the reservists and a civilian were indicted on a charge of committing serious security offenses, bribery and obstruction of justice, Shin Bet said, without naming the people who were arrested. Polymarket is what is called a prediction market that lets people place bets to forecast the direction of events. Users wager on everything from the size of any interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve in March to the winner of League of Legends videogame tournaments to the number of times Elon Musk will tweet in the third week of February.
The arrests followed reports in Israeli media that Shin Bet was investigating a series of Polymarket bets last year related to when Israel would launch an attack on Iran, including which day or month the attack would take place and when Israel would declare the operation over. Last year, a user who went by the name ricosuave666 correctly predicted the timeline around the 12-day war between Israel and Iran. The bets drew attention from other traders who suspected the account holder had access to nonpublic information. The account in question raked in more than $150,000 in winnings before going dormant for six months. It resumed trading last month, betting on when Israel would strike Iran, Polymarket data shows.
3 comments
Sigh (Score: 5, Insightful)
by jd ( 1658 ) on <imipak AT yahoo DOT com> on Saturday February 14, 2026 @07:22AM (#65988476)
When Admiral John Poyndexter originally proposed a stock market for violence, terrorism, and conflicts, as a means to "predict" them, absolutely everyone pointed out that you'd get the equivalent of insider trading by terrorists, warlords, and psychopaths. Which is precisely what we're seeing.
Genocide is bad, but have you tried... (Score: 5, Insightful)
by mikeymikec ( 8253876 ) on Saturday February 14, 2026 @07:38AM (#65988496)
personally profiting from genocide?
Betting sites are a front of public corruption (Score: 5, Insightful)
by Facekhan ( 445017 ) on Saturday February 14, 2026 @09:25AM (#65988656)
We also saw a case recently where someone won $400k betting Maduro would not be in office and itâ(TM)s thought they are likely a DOD or Trump admin insider.
Polymarket and other betting sites have basically become a way for insiders to profiteer on non public information but in a way that endangers states by adding a personal profit motive to govt policy that extends far beyond actual decision makers or those in a position to award govt contracts and now anyone around the water cooler can do it.