Hollywood studios and production companies are quietly warning employees against using insider knowledge to bet on blockchain-based prediction markets, according to a Thursday report by The Hollywood Reporter. The new internal policies bar workers from trading on outcomes such as studio earnings, casting decisions, production timelines, release dates and award nominations, and also prohibit sharing non-public information with friends or family who might place bets.
The trade publication said its own parent company, Penske Media, recently updated its employee handbook to ban bets tied to award nominations, casting decisions, production timelines and release dates. At least one entertainment company has set up an anonymous hotline for employees to report colleagues suspected of placing inside-knowledge bets.
The policies extend longstanding insider trading rules from traditional stock markets to platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, which host event contracts on cultural subjects ranging from the next James Bond actor to reality show eliminations. Enforcement remains difficult: Columbia University law professor Joshua Mitts told the outlet that blockchain-based trading can be basically impossible to trace when users hide identities behind mixers and layered intermediaries.
Concerns grew after BetOnline temporarily suspended its James Bond casting market in early November following a sudden wave of money that moved Callum Turner above longtime favorite Jack Lowden, raising fears of a leak. The report noted earlier cases: a MrBeast video editor was fired and fined $20,000 in February after making about $5,000 on Kalshi using confidential information, and federal prosecutors have charged an active-duty soldier and a Google engineer over alleged insider bets on Polymarket.
California, New York and Illinois have barred state employees from using nonpublic information on prediction markets, while platforms have begun rolling out surveillance tools. Polymarket has investigated dozens of bets tied to the U.S. midterm elections. Under the Onion Futures Act of 1958, U.S. law explicitly bans futures contracts on onions and movie box office receipts.
