Polymarket has announced the addition of new consumer protections and anti-addiction measures to its platform.
Users will be able to set deposit limits that cannot be immediately undone and place themselves on an "exclusion list" that would temporarily block them from accessing the platform.
The news, however, has been met with criticism from lawmakers, who believe the company is introducing such measures in an attempt to pacify state regulators.
Just last week, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Governor Kathy Hochul filed a lawsuit against Polymarket for “running an illegal gambling operation."
Regulators believe the company is circumventing safety requirements all gambling operators must adhere to, such as blocking underage users, following rules against predatory advertising, mandatory funding for addiction programs and "self-exclusion" policies.
Some believe Polymarket's decision to introduce a form of responsible gambling measures (although the company calls them "responsible trading measures") can be seen as self-incriminating.
However, Polymarket's Chief Legal Officer Olivia Chalos insists that the safeguards are in place to protect younger users who have never participated in financial markets before.
The debate surrounding prediction contracts as financial derivatives rather than bets has recently crossed the Atlantic, as the company reportedly met with regulators across Europe but to no avail.
Sports, including multi-leg parlays, accounted for more than 98% of trading volume on Polymarket’s US site this month
