‘Hairdryer or lighter?’: French police look at claim of sensor tampering to win weather bets

Polymarket should be banned into the deepest pits of hell where it rightfully belongs.

>The expansion of Polymarket, an online betting platform which has investors including a venture capital firm owned by Donald Trump Jr, is stoking concerns that reality – or truth as it is reported – may become increasingly subject to the whims of a nihilistic and growing community of online gamblers. >Bettors threatened an Israeli journalist after he reported a missile hit near Jerusalem, because of the nearly $1m staked on whether Iran would strike Israel on that day. >Gamblers have discussed contacting an independent US thinktank, the Institute for the Study of War, which produces maps that will determine dozens of active bets on the flux of war on Ukraine’s frontlines – for example, if Russia may take or lose a village or region. >In a thriving online economy, thousands of people are discussing how to profit from war. They are betting on Ukraine. They were betting on the US-Iran ceasefire – $280m in play. They are betting on whether the US will invade Iran – $7.5m wagered. >In July 2024, shortly before Donald Trump was re-elected in the US, Polymarket had reported about $400m total traded on its platforms that year. It now can trade upward of that in a single day. >This is not the first time Polymarket has been ensnared in controversy. An exclusive CNN investigation published at the end of March found evidence that one trader made nearly a million dollars from successful bets on Polymarket over a two-year period by accurately predicting American and Israel military actions against Iran, which prompted suspicions of insider trading. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/23/hairdryer-or-lighter-french-police-look-at-claim-of-sensor-tampering-to-win-weather-bets](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/23/hairdryer-or-lighter-french-police-look-at-claim-of-sensor-tampering-to-win-weather-bets) [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/apr/11/polymarket-gamblers-betting-iran-war-ukraine-news-truth](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/apr/11/polymarket-gamblers-betting-iran-war-ukraine-news-truth) [https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/23/europe/france-weather-sensor-polymarket-bet-intl-latam](https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/23/europe/france-weather-sensor-polymarket-bet-intl-latam)

Tampering with sensors to change weather data is too much effort, and may not work. I know of an American who can change the path of a hurricane with just a Sharpie pen.

Out of the all of the possible criminal activities and millions of dollars wagered on Polymarket we used police resources to investigate a four degree temperature swing over $20K. Good job prioritizing.