Polymarket has showed that it can still hit a new low after the controversial prediction market was allowing users to effectively bet on rape and sexual assault.
According to coverage from Defector, a market titled “Any of the Cornell 7 charged with a felony sex crime?” was on the gambling platform for nearly three weeks, before it was recently taken down after a public outcry.
The bet, which opened on September 30, was referring to the defendants against a civil suit filed last month by a former Cornell University student who says she was drugged and gang-raped by seven students who were part of a frat house on campus.
The harrowing case became a national news story, fueling headlines, sparking protests, and driving heated debates. And now, in an age of ubiquitous and effortless gambling, it was also powering bets.
Women and women’s rights organizations on social media began calling out the Polymarket bet over the past week, per Defector, though it largely escaped mainstream media scrutiny.
The news site Front Office Sports reached out for comment and got only a boilerplate statement. Defector followed up and got an even less informative reply: “Polymarket is going to respectfully decline comment at this time.”
The bet was suddenly taken down after the FOS story ran, even though the company’s statement suggested no contrition or intent to change course. “This case, and sexual assault on college campuses more broadly, are deeply important issues,” Polymarket said, “and markets bring objective, data-driven insight into how a matter like this is moving through the legal system, on a topic that deserves far more transparency and honest attention.”
It elaborated on this in a statement to PBS after the bet was removed: “That said, we believe in the wisdom of crowds, have heard them loud and clear, and removed the market.”
Polymarket has a sordid history of unscrupulous bets. It allowed users to bet on whether a nuclear weapon would be detonated before next year, though it was taken down. It also routinely hosts bets on climate change, military actions, and natural disasters.
The chilling thing, Defector notes, is that it’s unclear if Polymarket would’ve bothered to take down the Cornell 7 bet if it hadn’t started attracting negative attention.
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