Originally published by Decrypt on November 6, 2026, at 01:31:10 UTC+08:00, citing a Thursday report from The Hollywood Reporter.
Hollywood studios and production companies have been quietly barring employees from betting on prediction markets, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The restrictions cover wagers tied to studio earnings, casting decisions and release dates—and passing confidential information to friends or family so they can bet instead.
The report puts a spotlight on a problem facing entertainment employers: platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket turn workplace information into potential betting advantages, including on questions about the next James Bond or reality-show eliminations.
What the workplace rules cover
At least one company has reportedly established an anonymous hotline for employees to report colleagues suspected of betting. Penske Media, The Hollywood Reporter’s parent company, also updated its employee handbook in recent weeks to prohibit wagers on “award nominations, casting decisions, production timelines and release dates,” the outlet said.
The policies extend employers’ long-standing restrictions on stock-market insider trading to prediction-market activity.
“You now have, essentially, an explosion in the number of employers who have to think about insider trading rules from an ethical standpoint,” Columbia University law professor Joshua Mitts, who studies prediction markets, told the outlet.
Enforcement is a separate challenge. Mitts said identifying blockchain-based traders can be extremely difficult when they use mixers and multiple layers of intermediation to conceal their identities.
A Bond betting shift raised concerns—not proof of a leak
According to the report, bookmaker BetOnline temporarily pulled its next-James-Bond market during the week of publication after a wave of “sharp money” pushed Callum Turner ahead of longtime favorite Jack Lowden.
That movement raised concerns about a possible leak. The report did not establish that a leak had occurred.
Other incidents have led to disciplinary action or criminal charges:
- February 2026: Kalshi said a video editor at MrBeast’s company made about $5,000 betting on MrBeast content using confidential information. The editor was fired and fined $20,000.
- April 2026: An active-duty U.S. soldier was charged with using classified information about the raid to capture Nicolás Maduro to bet on Polymarket.
- May 2026: A Google engineer was charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering over Polymarket bets allegedly made using confidential company data.
The soldier’s and engineer’s cases remained pending at publication; the allegations were not findings of guilt.
Restrictions extend beyond studios
California, New York and Illinois have banned state employees from using nonpublic information to bet on prediction markets. Platforms have also introduced surveillance tools, and Polymarket has investigated dozens of bets on the U.S. midterm elections.
There is also an existing restriction relevant to Hollywood: The Hollywood Reporter noted that, under the Onion Futures Act of 1958, U.S. law explicitly bans two types of futures contracts—those on onions and those on movie box office receipts.