{"id":14745,"date":"2026-08-05T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T12:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/?p=14745"},"modified":"2026-08-05T12:00:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T12:00:49","slug":"senators-demand-crackdown-on-wildfire-prediction-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/?p=14745","title":{"rendered":"Senators demand crackdown on wildfire &#8220;prediction markets&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-bottom:1em; color:#666; font-size:0.9em;\">\n<strong><br \/>\n                    Cyrus Farivar<br \/>\n                <\/strong><br \/>\n &bull;<br \/>\nAugust 4, 2026\n<\/div>\n<hr\/>\n<p>Several US senators have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-padilla-shaheen-schiff-rosen-cortez-masto-heinrich-wyden-klobuchar-cftc-must-rein-in-wildfire-bets-on-prediction-markets\/\">written<\/a> a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), inquiring about the agency\u2019s \u201cplans to crack down on prediction markets\u201d that offer \u201ccontracts for individuals to bet on wildfires.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOffering bets on destructive wildfires threatens to minimize communities\u2019 suffering, all so the rich and powerful can profit,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026.08.03-LTR-Wildfire-Prediction-Markets-FINAL.pdf\">wrote<\/a> the group of senators, who represent Oregon, California, Nevada, Minnesota, and New Hampshire.<\/p>\n<p>The document specifically cites that <a href=\"https:\/\/polymarket.com\/event\/palisades-fire-burns-10000-acres-by-friday\">Polymarket hosted bets in January 2025<\/a> on the wildfires in Los Angeles, and it mentions another website which specifically accepts \u201csimulated bets\u201d exclusively on California wildfires.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/2026\/08\/senators-demand-crackdown-on-wildfire-prediction-markets\/\">Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/2026\/08\/senators-demand-crackdown-on-wildfire-prediction-markets\/#comments\">Comments<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top:1.5em;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/2026\/08\/senators-demand-crackdown-on-wildfire-prediction-markets\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the full article &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cyrus Farivar &bull; August 4, 2026 Several US senators have written a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), inquiring about the agency\u2019s \u201cplans to crack down on prediction markets\u201d that offer \u201ccontracts for individuals to bet on wildfires.\u201d \u201cOffering bets on destructive wildfires threatens to minimize communities\u2019 suffering, all so the rich and<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/?p=14745\" class=\"themebutton2\">READ MORE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14745\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}