Betting Site Bet Nobody Would Check Whether the Bets Were Real. Lost.

Photography of a cracked smartphone screen showing a green winning chart, sitting on a sticky bar counter, harsh fluorescent lighting, washed-out colors, flat overhead composition

Polymarket, the prediction-market app, ran TikTok ads showing winning bets from dummy accounts. The Wall Street Journal checked. More than half would have lost. The house, in this case, was the marketing department.

Polymarket, an app where people bet on news outcomes, ran TikTok ads showing big wins from accounts that did not exist. The Wall Street Journal added the fake bets up. More than half would have lost money.

This is the part I respect. Someone sat down, invented a gambler, and could not even rig him to win. That takes a special hand. Then they posted it. On TikTok. Where things are saved.

The premise of a betting ad is that the guy in it won. That is the entire job. Polymarket shipped losers and hoped nobody owned a calculator. The Journal owns a calculator.

I will not be around for the settlement, but I assume the dummy accounts get to keep their dummy money. Kalshi, the rival, is presumably filming real winners, which sounds expensive.

Related twisted takes: Flip Phone Maker Says Even If You Install TikTok, the Phone Just Won'… · TikTok Takeover: Trump's Terrific Triumph! · AMC's Genius Plan: More Ads to Torture Earthlings!

Based on the original article "Polymarket has reportedly been paying creators to post fake betting videos".