Polymarket Was Allowing Bets On Sexual Assault Cases Until People Started Asking Questions

For nearly three weeks, a real bet a person could place on the Polymarket gambling app was on “Any of the Cornell 7 charged with a felony sex crime?” The Cornell 7 refers to seven defendants in a civil lawsuit filed last month by a former Cornell University student, saying she was gang-raped by several fraternity members.

No criminal charges have been filed, but after the lawsuit drew national attention, a local prosecutor said on Sept. 28 that his office would reopen the criminal investigation. Two days later, on Sept. 30, a market opened up on the popular gambling platform (though technically it is a “prediction market”) to bet on the results of the investigation. The market was not available to bettors in the United States version of the app, but the bet itself was very easy to find. I just punched “Cornell 7” into the search bar and found it pretty easily.