Hollywood studios and production companies have been issuing rules barring employees from betting on prediction markets using workplace information, according to a report by The Hollywood Reporter cited by Decrypt.
Decrypt published its article on November 6, 2026, at 01:31:10 UTC+8, citing the trade publication’s Thursday report. The restrictions covered bets on studio earnings, casting decisions and release dates, as well as passing information to friends or relatives so they could place wagers instead.
At least one company reportedly established an anonymous hotline for employees to report suspected betting by colleagues. Penske Media, which owns The Hollywood Reporter, also updated its employee handbook in the preceding weeks to prohibit bets on “award nominations, casting decisions, production timelines and release dates,” the outlet said.
Workplace rules meet prediction markets
The policies extend longstanding workplace restrictions on stock-market insider trading to prediction-market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket. Those platforms offer markets on entertainment outcomes, including the next James Bond casting and reality-show eliminations.
Joshua Mitts, a Columbia University law professor who studies prediction markets, told The Hollywood Reporter that the growth of these markets had expanded the range of employers needing to consider insider-trading rules from an ethical standpoint. He also warned that identifying traders could be extremely difficult when blockchain transactions are obscured through mixers and multiple layers of intermediation.
The report described a separate concern at bookmaker BetOnline, which temporarily removed its next-James-Bond market during the week of the report. A sudden influx of what it called “sharp money” had pushed Callum Turner ahead of longtime favorite Jack Lowden, raising concerns about a possible leak. The report did not establish that a leak had occurred.
Earlier cases and government restrictions
Decrypt also cited earlier incidents involving alleged misuse of confidential information:
- February 2026: Kalshi said a video editor at MrBeast’s company made about $5,000 by using confidential information to bet on MrBeast content. 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 based on confidential company data.
Both federal cases remained pending at the time of publication.
California, New York and Illinois had also prohibited state employees from using nonpublic information to bet on prediction markets. Platforms had introduced surveillance tools, and Polymarket had investigated dozens of bets on the U.S. midterm elections.
The report also noted a specific legal limit on entertainment-related markets: under the Onion Futures Act of 1958, U.S. law explicitly prohibits futures contracts on onions and movie box-office receipts.