Officials to examine ‘suspicious bets’ on Polymarket, says Harris
By Cillian Sherlock, Press Association
Gardaí, regulators and government departments are to examine “suspicious bets” made on the Polymarket platform, the Tánaiste said.
Simon Harris raised “grave concerns” around a “Wild West” of unregulated betting on the platform, as he said it would be prudent to examine if there was money laundering occurring.
His comments came after reports highlighted a million dollars worth of betting on the outcome of the Dublin Central by-election on Friday, with hundreds of thousands of euro of that volume placed on Gerry “The Monk” Hutch not to win a seat.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on behalf of any candidate.
What seems to be developing at a global scale and indeed a rapid pace now is a kind of Wild West where people are placing bets in the form of cryptocurrency in a secretive, murky and unregulated manner
Speaking at the Banking and Payments Federation conference in Dublin on Tuesday, Harris said: “The developments that we have seen reported in recent days around the use of polymarkets to place suspicious bets on Irish elections also raises grave concerns for me.”
He said: “What seems to be developing at a global scale and indeed a rapid pace now is a kind of Wild West where people are placing bets in the form of cryptocurrency in a secretive, murky and unregulated manner.
“I have asked my officials today to do a deep-dive analysis into this area.
“We must engage with the Department of Justice, An Garda Siochana, the gambling regulator, the Central Bank, our EU partners and all relevant agencies and bodies as we consider an appropriate policy response.”
Harris said protecting consumers and maintaining confidence in the financial system must remain an “absolute priority”.
Asked to expand on his comments at a subsequent press conference, the Finance Minister said the area merited serious policy consideration.
“There’s two elements from my perspective to this: there’s the element of gambling, and it is classified as gambling, and therefore the potential role for the gambling regulator, and I think a conversation around that would be important,” he said.
“And then, secondly, the potential concern that this is a vehicle that could be used in terms of money laundering as well.”
You certainly can't rule out in a broad sense - not talking about a specific by-election as I don't know - but in a broad sense, the idea of activity that may not be kosher, but I don't have evidence in relation to that
Pressed on whether he believed people in Ireland were using the Dublin Central market to launder money, Mr Harris stressed there was no suggestion of wrongdoing on behalf of any candidate, but said: “But one does have to ask themselves, why are so many people from potentially outside our jurisdiction interested in using Polymarket in relation to the Dublin Central by-election? Like that question merits consideration.
“Why are other kinds of names popping up in relation to people placing bets on polymarkets? What’s going on here?
“And you certainly can’t rule out in a broad sense – not talking about a specific by-election as I don’t know – but in a broad sense, the idea of activity that may not be kosher, but I don’t have evidence in relation to that.”
Asked if government officials have been issued a directive not to bet on Polymarket, he said that merited consideration and said “people should always be ethical”.
Polymarket has been contacted for comment.
