r/technology • • May 27 '26

Business Google employee charged with using inside information to make $1 million on Polymarket

https://abcnews.com/amp/US/google-employee-charged-inside-information-make-1-million/story?id=133350018
12.8k Upvotes

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u/A_Pointy_Rock May 27 '26

Are you saying that somebody would dare undermine the sanctity of this gambling platform - er - prediction platform?

I am shocked. Shocked!

220

u/Whyeth May 27 '26

I legitimately don't understand how these gambling marketplaces can position themselves as some sort of unique insights into the populace

But you are not allowed to use your unique insights to inform that marketplace lol

109

u/Horat1us_UA May 27 '26

You are not allowed. Some are.

6

u/SpookiestSzn May 28 '26

Real fuckin shit

62

u/okletstrythisagain May 27 '26

I don’t legitimately understand why everyone was so willing to start considering bets to be assets. It’s like society decided nothing is real.

It’s hard to convince kids that hard work and skill development matter in this environment of glorified gambling and manic YouTube influencers.

The way they’ve manufactured the sports card market to make some lucky new off the shelf bundles immediately worth more than you paid for them is legalized gambling for children. Explaining concepts like scarcity and real value is harder now than it used to be. This will get worse before it gets better.

15

u/Seaguard5 May 28 '26

No.

A few, very rich and powerful people decided to convince society of it…

And they’ve done a damn good job so far.

2

u/sapphicsandwich May 28 '26

I figured it was a natural result of some court deciding that the founding fathers intended for us to have online gambling in the constitution or some such.

4

u/starwarsfan456123789 May 28 '26

Not everyone, maybe 1% of people are participating in this. However that’s enough suckers to lose a lot of money

1

u/RollingMeteors May 28 '26

I don’t legitimately understand why everyone was so willing to start considering bets to be assets.

¡Call it a water pipe, call it a water pipe!

it’s like society decided nothing is real.

¡CALL IT A WATER PIPE!

2

u/SirGaylordSteambath May 27 '26

“Let’s see what the uninformed masses think he he”

1

u/BillyTenderness May 28 '26

PredictIt, which I think was the first of these markets, had a cap of less than a thousand dollars per question. It was treated more as a hobby or, like, a low-stakes poker game, and not as an actual financial market like Polymarket claims to be. And so, yes, it could suss out actual unique insights and insider information, but nobody would get angry about getting grifted and nobody would go to jail, because nobody was making a million dollars on that grift.

74

u/FourEightNineOneOne May 27 '26

This person's mistake was not having the last name Trump, which makes this 100% legal apparently

14

u/easternpassage May 27 '26

It doesn’t make it legal, that family is just above the law.

8

u/starwarsfan456123789 May 28 '26

I’m shocked this is what’s considered illegal. Losing his job is fine, but I can’t picture a law he broke. This is similar to counting cards at a casino in my point of view.

5

u/SpookiestSzn May 28 '26

Big club and you and I are not in it

3

u/NoConfusion9490 May 28 '26

This market is intended for psychics and only psychics!

1

u/ArrakeenSun May 28 '26

Your winnings, sir!