Illinois Congressman Demands Answers From Polymarket Over Influencer Ties

Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi sent a formal letter to Polymarket this week demanding details about the company's paid partnerships with online influencers. It follows reports suggesting some of those creators had promoted claims disputing the legitimacy of US elections while simultaneously advertising the platform's election betting markets. 

Krishnamoorthi's letter asks Polymarket to disclose whether the company knew, at the time these paid arrangements were made or renewed, that any of its influencer partners had a history of spreading election denial claims or questioning past US election results. He also wants the company to identify those individuals and explain what internal policies, if any, govern paid promotions tied to election markets, including whether those policies address content that casts doubt on election integrity. 

"Recent reporting has raised significant questions about how election-related prediction markets are promoted and whether existing safeguards are sufficient to prevent the spread of misleading narratives about election integrity,” he wrote. “Reporting regarding prediction market platforms suggests that weaknesses in influencer, affiliate, and sponsored-content programs may allow election misinformation to be amplified while generating financial benefits for the platforms, influencer affiliates, and market participants."  

The letter raises concern that financial incentives built into influencer and affiliate programs could encourage the spread of premature or false claims about election outcomes before results are finalized or certified on one of the top prediction market apps.

The congressman has requested internal records covering how election-market influencers are vetted and monitored. He also requested related training documents, communications, and enforcement records. He set a deadline of July 28 for Polymarket to respond, requesting documents covering the period from January 20, 2025, to the present. 

Separate investigation alleges faked winning trades 

The congressional inquiry follows a separate controversy involving Polymarket's influencer marketing practices more broadly. A Wall Street Journal investigation reported that the company and its contractors paid a group of content creators between $2,000 and $3,000 a month to post videos showing large winning trades on the platform. 

Much of the activity was allegedly staged using clone websites built to resemble Polymarket rather than the real platform. 

The WSJ reviewed 1,105 videos posted by 10 creators between December 2025 and mid-May 2026 and found that roughly 70% depicted bets that never actually took place. Across 118 of those videos, creators claimed nearly $900,000 in winnings that did not exist, on positions that would have actually lost more than $166,000 had they been placed on real markets.  

Reporting indicated that creators were instructed not to disclose the paid arrangement, with some only adding sponsorship labels to their profiles after journalists began asking questions. 

The report adds to existing scrutiny of Polymarket's trading practices. A separate Columbia University study estimated that close to 25% of the platform's historical trading volume may have consisted of wash trading, while earlier Journal reporting found that a small fraction of accounts, about 0.1%, collected the majority of profits generated on the platform.