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Re:Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile... by derf_ on Monday March 16, 2026 @04:48PM (#47404659)
> Strong regulation and legal consequences could potentially fix this.

There are regulations. E.g., in the US, 17 CFR ยง 40.11 prohibits contracts on "terrorism, assassination, war, gaming, or an activity that is unlawful under any State or Federal law" [0]. The problem is that those responsible for enforcing those regulations are currently uninterested in doing so [1].

[0] https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/17/40.11

[1] https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9183-26

Re:Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile... by margalabargala on Monday March 16, 2026 @04:54PM (#47404733)
Yeah, regulations are only as strong as the consequences given those who break them.

If people can threaten journalists for money and get away with it, they will. If people who threaten journalists over money are sent to prison, then after a brief transition period it will mostly stop.

Re:Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile... by tuple on Monday March 16, 2026 @05:40PM (#47405311)
It's braindead easy to anonymously threaten people on the internet. It's getting easier to steal identities or create new ones out of whole cloth and cypto wallets means you can't functionally know where the money comes from. I'm not sure attempting to punish people you can't realistically identify can be considered an effective strategy.

Punishing a corporate entity however is much easier.

Re:Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile... by autoexec on Tuesday March 17, 2026 @01:53AM (#47409124)
> Punishing a corporate entity however is much easier.

We don't seem to have much luck getting it to happen. The larger the corporate entity the more unlikely they'll see any meaningful punishment.

Re:Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile... by thayne on Monday March 16, 2026 @10:10PM (#47407745)
Seems like bets on missile strikes would violate that...
Re:Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile... by DoctorOetker on Tuesday March 17, 2026 @12:15AM (#47408535)
This is the sanest reply on the thread.

During WW2 when Britain captured all incoming german spies and ran a fake german spy network, they could redirect the german V1 or V2 bombs, by misreporting what they did or didn't hit.

Allowing bets on acts of violence allows the perpetrators to assess their success rate...

Re:Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile... by thaumasiotes on Tuesday March 17, 2026 @02:45AM (#47409406)
They do. It's moot, though, because Polymarket isn't subject to US law.

There has been an ongoing controversy over the fact that Kalshi (which is subject to US law) chose to comply with the law over the market on Khomeini "leaving office", when the bettors assumed that it wouldn't.

Re:Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile... by gepiti on Tuesday March 17, 2026 @09:15AM (#47412220)
What happens if someone bets on a terrorist attack in an unlikely place and then puts the bomb himself? This can turn ugly very easily.
Re:Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile... by kmacdough on Tuesday March 17, 2026 @09:46AM (#47412612)
Well that is a high enough level even the bet would probably be enforced. But the point is valid, this is a slippery slope and there's a reason these bets are illegal.