Baltimore has launched its strike against the prediction market giants Kalshi and Polymarket with fresh lawsuits claiming both platforms pushed illegal sports betting right in the city.
Shady Event Contracts Exposed 🌑
Mayor Brandon M. Scott and the Baltimore City Council dropped separate complaints on August 13 in the Circuit Court. These filings call out breaches of the local Consumer Protection Ordinance while accusing the firms of tricking users on the legality and oversight of their tools.
The suits detail how Kalshi and Polymarket let residents wager on game winners point spreads totals player stats and similar plays typical of licensed sportsbooks. The operators label them event contracts or prediction market trades yet officials insist the name never alters the core gambling nature.
Neither outfit holds the needed Maryland licenses for sports betting so they dodge taxes oversight responsible play rules and protections that hit regulated competitors.
Marketing tactics drew extra fire too with claims that both platforms created false impressions of full legality and regulation making betting seem safer and easier for vulnerable groups like young adults or those with addiction risks.
The city now wants civil penalties court orders consumer restitution profit disgorgement and full legal remedies available.
Broader Defi Legal Chaos Unfolds 🕸️
These platforms juggle parallel fights elsewhere such as New York state moving to halt Kalshi operations via its attorney general with the CFTC stepping in to keep things running after the company sought federal backup.
A flight data firm briefly sued Kalshi over unauthorized use of its info for cancellation markets before dropping the case without prejudice a day later.
Polymarket shifted away from JPMorgan banking services late last year to an undisclosed new provider while facing a separate consumer suit in Washington D.C. accusing its CEO and marketing lead of running deceptive social ads that pushed access for US users despite restrictions.
Reports of influencers hyping accuracy without payment disclosures add to the mix along with simulated win videos spreading online.
This whole scene highlights DeFi prediction markets bleeding into traditional gambling territory with regulators closing in from multiple directions. 🦇🔮💀🌙🖤🕷️🌸
Just another echo from the void by iconofsin.eth 💖
