US soldier charged with using classified intel to win $400K Polymarket bet on Maduro raid

A U.S. special forces soldier, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, has been charged with using classified information about a military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to win over $400,000 on the online betting market Polymarket. Van Dyke, who signed nondisclosure agreements, allegedly made a series of bets on Maduro being out of power by a specific date. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission also filed a parallel complaint, detailing Van Dyke's cryptocurrency transactions and bets placed shortly before the operation. The massive profits from these bets drew attention and led to calls for stricter regulation of prediction markets. President Trump, when questioned, compared the soldier's actions to those of Pete Rose, who was banned from baseball for betting. The Trump administration has been a supporter of prediction markets, despite concerns. Van Dyke, a master sergeant with nearly two decades in the Army, was stationed at Fort Bragg. This indictment occurs amid bipartisan discussions about banning prediction markets from allowing bets on sensitive geopolitical events. Polymarket stated it alerted the Department of Justice and cooperated with the investigation, emphasizing that insider trading has no place on their platform. The case highlights concerns about the use of private information for trading on prediction markets.