As wildfires continue to ravage Los Angeles communities, lawmakers are pushing back against prediction market platforms that allow users to bet on the outcome of these disasters. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff are among the elected officials demanding that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission take action to prevent people from profiting from wildfires and other deadly disasters.

Concerns Over Safety and Arson

Padilla and Schiff, along with seven other U.S. senators, sent a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman on August 3, calling for ‘guardrails’ to be put in place to prevent such wagers. They argue that these bets raise safety and arson concerns, and that they are ‘profiting off misery.’ John Ford, an Eaton Fire survivor who lost his home, expressed outrage over the fact that some people were benefiting from his hardship.

‘I just feel like you’re turning our human suffering and climate disasters into a casino game,’ Ford said. ‘I think money sometimes wrongly drives whether we make a decision to do something or not — and that’s painful for all of our communities.’ Polymarket, one of the prediction market platforms in question, responded by stating that when tragedies strike, ‘people turn to news for commentary, and they come to Polymarket for information.’ However, the senators are pushing for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to respond by August 14 with a plan to address these concerns.

Original reporting: NBC4 Los Angeles — read the source article.