Free Markets

Polymarket's Alleged Fake Trades Don't Justify a Crackdown on Prediction Markets

A Wall Street Journal investigation uncovered $1.9 million in fake bets to market the platform. Punishing the prediction market industry isn't the answer.

Tosin Akintola | 6.23.2026 1:16 PM

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(Adani Illustration: Samat/Instagram/Tiktok)

A recent investigation by The Wall Street Journal found that the prediction market Polymarket paid social media creators and influencers to promote $1.9 million in fake positions as part of its marketing strategy to lure American users to the platform.

To fool viewers, Polymarket built copies of its website with domain names like "poiymarket.com," where paid promoters could create ads of fabricated trades that the company's marketing partner then disseminated. Promoters were selected based on the size of their U.S. audience, with Polymarket providing "bullet-point guidance" on content, according to the Journal.

In 118 of the 1,105 videos reviewed by the Journal, creators falsified "almost $900,000" in winning contracts. One influencer, a college student named George Makihara, reportedly wagered nearly $410,000 in fake trades from January to mid-May as a paid promoter for Polymarket without identifying his affiliation with the company.

One of these trades allegedly happened in January, when Makihara posted a video of himself "purchasing" $1,000 in fake shares under a contract that paid out if President........

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