Google employee charged with using confidential search data to make $1.2 million on Polymarket

[Prairie Gates]

7. These aren't "markets." They're betting apps

This guy got a hot tip about a horse. Knew a stable guy who told him the 2:1 favorite met had a visit from a veterinarian, etc.

Honestly, what sort of social utility (the alibi for so-called free markets) is produced by a bet on the top search term of a prior year? The Prediction Betting Apps are ridiculous.

This guy is being charged for one reason only: the people who are doing massive insider betting on these apps (to wit, the Trump circle) now see people losing confidence in the integrity of the apps. So, they have to put up a scapegoat to assure people that the apps have some kind of integrity. You have to have suckers on the wrong side of these bets, after all. This is the proverbial handing out of a speeding ticket at the Indy 500.