Bettors Threaten War Reporter, Demand Change to Story

A text on his phone put it bluntly: "You have 90 minutes left to update the lie." That's what Times of Israel war correspondent Emanuel Fabian says he received on WhatsApp after a short March 10 post in which he reported that an Iranian missile had hit open ground near Beit Shemesh, causing no injuries. Unbeknownst to him, the wording had become crucial to a Polymarket prediction market on whether an Iranian missile would strike Israel that day, with millions of dollars ultimately wagered, reports the Washington Post. As bettors argued online over whether the blast qualified as a "strike" under the market's rules, Fabian began getting increasingly insistent—and then threatening—messages.

One user calling himself told Fabian that if the reporter caused him to lose a $900,000 bet, "we will invest no less than that to finish you," even dangling a cut of the winnings if he revised the article. Fabian refused, went to police, and wrote about the episode for his newspaper. Polymarket says it has banned the involved accounts and condemned the harassment, noting prediction markets rely on independent reporting. The incident lands as US lawmakers prepare to introduce the BETS OFF Act, aiming to curb wagering on sensitive events, and as critics warn that tying big money to real-time news risks new dangers for journalists.