Seth Moulton, a Democratic congressman from Massachusetts and former Marine Corps officer, has criticised the online betting platform Polymarket for allowing wagers on the timing of the rescue of two US air force crew members whose F-15E Strike Eagle jet was shot down by Iranian forces. The platform removed the market following his condemnation, vowing to investigate how it was created.
Iranian military forces on Friday downed the F-15E, which was taking part in US and Israeli operations against Iran that began in late February. The aircraft’s pilot was rescued within seven hours, while the other crew member was recovered shortly after, with President Donald Trump announcing the rescue on his Truth Social platform. For a period, Polymarket users could bet on when the rescues would occur, with most wagers predicting they would happen by Saturday.
In a post on X, Moulton wrote: “Their safety is unknown … And people are betting on whether or not they’ll be saved. This is DISGUSTING.” Polymarket responded by stating the market was taken down “immediately as it does not meet our integrity standards. It should not have been posted, and we are investigating how this slipped through our internal safeguards.” Moulton countered that the platform still accepted hundreds of other war-related bets and described Polymarket as a “dystopian death market”, noting that Donald Trump Jr, the president’s eldest son, is an investor.
This incident follows previous controversy involving Polymarket, when some users sent threatening messages to an Israeli journalist whose reporting became the subject of an unresolved bet related to the war in Iran. The platform has attracted increasing scrutiny from US lawmakers, who have proposed bans on prediction markets for sports, casino-style games, and events involving government actions or war. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut stated: “When events that involve good and evil, life and death become just another financial product, morality no longer matters and the soul of America is fundamentally corrupted.”
