Overview
- President Trump said prediction markets have turned the world into a casino and added that he is not happy with their growing influence.
- A U.S. Army soldier, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, was charged with using classified details of a Venezuela operation to place Polymarket bets that prosecutors say netted more than $400,000.
- Prosecutors allege the soldier wagered on U.S. intervention and Nicolás Maduro’s ouster, then tried to hide his identity by deleting his account and moving funds through crypto channels.
- Recent trading on Iran-related questions surged on Polymarket after Trump’s posts, with Dune reporting 413 million wagers risking over $100 million from April 5–8 and nearly 100,000 bets on April 8 alone.
- Donald Trump Jr. holds a stake in Polymarket and advises Kalshi, as AP reported, with Polymarket’s value reaching $9.6 billion per PitchBook, while TRM Labs estimates market-wide monthly volume climbed to about $20 billion by January.