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Guys, things have gotten so crazy in the world that I am out here agreeing with aoc like, ugh. Shudders. Horrifying. It's devastating. But unfortunately, she made a great point recently about gambling. Now, if you guys watch the interview that I did on John Chris show earlier this week, which you absolutely should, it was such a fun interview and I just adore him. But if you watch that, then you probably know by now that there is one topic that my dear husband Alex has been begging me to discuss on this show, and that is the intersection of the gambling markets and insider trading. And just to give you a window into our marriage, this is something that we discussed daily. Like, my husband has been monitoring this situation for months and every time that we would talk about it, like, my entire head would start to spin. I don't know if it's just me. I don't know if I'm just not a man. I don't follow betting. I'm not interested in poly market and calls. She don't know what I would say. But to his credit, he was right to continue pushing me. He was right to continue bringing it up. He's usually right about these sorts of things. And if you care, as I do, about calling out corruption and calling out hypocrisy, then this is just something that we cannot ignore. Even if you are not into the betting markets, even if you don't understand gambling, which is often where I find myself, because now, these days, in the modern era, it's not just people with classified information going to Wall street and making trades. They are now able to use that information on online betting sites. Not the stock market, but sites that allow you to gamble with people's lives. And it begs the question of whether our political system has been completely gamified. Now, before we dive into this topic, make sure that you like this video and subscribe to the channel if you've not already. And if you have, thank you guys so much. I appreciate you being here. And if you want to stay up to date on everything we're doing here on this channel, make sure to ring that notification bell. Also, I have a couple new shows coming up at Zany's here in Nashville. So if you want to get tickets for that, go to Brett Cooper.com, brettCooper.com is your hub for all things. You can even toggle on over to Cooper Confidential, which is our subscriber site. So if you want all the behind the scenes content as well, you can, you can find that there. Cooperconfidential.com or cooper.com for tickets. See you there. Okay, so I just have to point out the obvious. I think it's really funny that I'm sitting down to do this episode about hypocrisy and corruption and insider trading, and I'm wearing a freaking crocheted bandana. This is the best day of my husband's life. He loves when I wear hair accessories, so he's very excited about this. My friend Rose was just in Korea for a month, and she brought this home for me, and I've been very excited to wear it. It's like 75 degrees here in Nashville. The sun is shining. I'm getting a tan by being outside working on the farm. So it just felt like the day to pull out the floral crocheted bandana and talk about corruption. So now, as you have probably gauged by the introduction, we are talking about Polymarket and call sheet today and the fact that they might be allegedly, allegedly, possibly, presumably, the new homes for modern insider trading. So Polymarket, specifically, they exploded during the 2024 election, where more than $3.3 billion was waged on Trump versus Kamala. It is now valued at $9 billion, and it's partnered with leagues like the MLB, UFC as their official prediction market. So it is now, like, fully in the mainstream. And as you probably know, polymarket is not your normal betting site. It's not like DraftKings, like its primary function is. I guess it's just betting on random events. I think that's the best way we could describe it. Like, for example, users bet nearly $200,000 on whether Trump would smoke pot with Joe Rogan. They bet another 65k on if Kamala Harris during her campaign would say the word brat before August. People even bet on if and when Jesus is going to return, if the US Will confirm that aliens exist or what year Taylor Swift will get pregnant, when her actual wedding is where it is, all of these things. They are even betting on Caroline Levitt's press conferences. And this is sort of where it starts to get interesting. Look at this. This is from January of this year, January 7th. Today's White House press briefing had a 98% chance of running over 65 minutes until Caroline Levitt abruptly ended it with seconds to spare. Traitors on the no side, meaning that minority, the 2% that said she would not go over 65 minutes, made 50 times their bet in seconds. Now, that clip right there from January 7, that was the first time that I saw people questioning whether anyone within the Trump administration or within government at large was in on this. Because if you watch that press conference, if you're watching the clock run up, the way that she immediately ends it and walks off stage, her abrupt ending was almost too perfectly timed. Like, just like it was almost too abrupt. Like someone maybe had private intel about her schedule, about where she had to go next, if she had a prior commitment, or possibly maybe she was doing something intentionally. Allegedly. Allegedly, presumably, theoretically, is what I am trying to say. I'm not accusing anyone. I am just trying to point out what the Internet has started to speculate and what they have started to notice in all these comment sections. And you might say, okay, well, Brett, like, what does that matter? It is a press conference. That kind of bet is harmless. I'm sure it's very regulated. I'm sure it's very illegal. Like, that cannot be happening. But you would be wrong. You'd absolutely be wrong. And honestly, something being illegal has never stopped our government in the first place. So we could just go ahead and mark that down. But anyway, back to the point. While the app Kalshi. Cause these are two different groups. While Kalshi has stricter laws in place. Polymarket, which is arguably the more popular site, it's the one that I come across most frequently on social media. They operate offshore, they do not require traditional ID verification to sign up, and they use crypto wallets instead of bank accounts. And obviously cryptocurrency is lauded as this thing that is very private and secure. It is anonymous. And so while I, somebody who has never met anything, does not spend any time on these apps, like literally has never interacted with them, I initially saw these two platforms as being synonymous, but there is a big difference. And this is going to be important. Listen to this. Kalshi is generally considered more regulated than Polymarket within the US because it is a direct, federally regulated exchange approved by the cftc. Kalshi operates under strict CFTC oversight, whereas Polymarket is considered more crypto native and has only recently expanded its US Presence, having faced more scrutiny over its decentralized international structure. Now, what I also didn't know is the Polymarket actually was not legal in the United States until the middle of last year, and it actually is still not legal in every state. And while Polymarket does seem more secure and anonymous, based on all of that information, it's not totally untraceable because every transaction is recorded on the blockchain. And so while your name is not attached publicly, that wallet, that crypto wallet, can often be traced back to you or back to a certain individual, even if they do not have all of your information, especially if you have ever bought crypto through a platform like Coinbase prior to this. So it is not fully anonymous. It is just harder to track than, let's say the stock market, because we already know that everyone and their mother can just watch what Nancy Pelosi and her husband are trading on a daily basis. And if you're smart, you're following that and making a bunch of money. Anyway, I will say, as Alex and I have been talking about this, this entire thing literally since January, I've debated doing this episode and I debated angling it more just to talk about the rise of gambling as a vice in our society, how we are seeing young people blow all of their money on these ridiculous bets. But like I said, it has become abundantly clear that we cannot ignore this. And I think that this warranted a more targeted, tailored story. Because now, allegedly, allegedly, presumably possibly, this platform is giving elected officials or just people with intel free reign to make money off of this classified information and possibly creating incentives for people in power to make certain moves, placing a bet or having somebody place a bet and then taking an action that results in profiting off of that bet. Now again, I'm not accusing anyone specifically, we're just pointing out what we are noticing. So take a look at this story from earlier this week. A trader made nearly $1 million since 2024 from dozens of well timed poly market bets that correctly predicted US and Israeli military actions against Iran. According to an analysis shared with CNN, the Better won a staggering 93% of their five figure wagers about Iran, even though the events they predicted were unannounced military operations. The traitor has had a pattern of Prussian bets including hours before Israeli strikes in October of 2024 during its tit for tat conflict with Iran, hours before US airstrikes against Iranian nuclear facilities in June of 2025 and hours before the joint US Israeli surprise attack in February which started the current war. Quote, all of this is strong signaling of insider activity based on the amount they made, the markets they bet on and the timing of their trades, the success rates of those trades and the fact that they are connected on chain the same account. This is pretty suspicious in my book. And they go on and they write, it isn't clear whether the trader flagged by Bumble Maps is an insider and the accounts they use are anonymous and can't publicly be traced back to a specific person. Like guys, these apps, if this is insider trading has completely changed the Game like this is crazy and it is far from an isolated incident. Look at this. This was posted February 28th. A 3 day old polymarket wallet made $493,000 in profit from the US strikes in Iran. Brand new account placed 3 bets, profited on all of them. Here's another. It's not just one wallet anymore. A group of fresh wallets, new accounts has now loaded over $2 million on the exact same same outcomes. These are multiple bets. They're doing. US forces enter Iran by April 30, no US entry in Iran by March 31, no ceasefire. By March 31, potential profit is over $2,500 now. In a full summary on X, one user wrote, this is the pattern that no one wants to acknowledge. In February, six newly created wallets on polymarket made $1.2 million betting on the exact timing of the attacks in Iran. All created and funded in the previous 24 hours. No betting history. In January, a new account made 436,000 betting on Maduro's capture hours before the US invaded Venezuela. Days ago, 10 new wallets appeared betting $160,000 on a ceasefire by the end of March. Same profile, no history created. At the same time, potential payout over a million dollars. Yesterday, all of those accounts exploded in profit. You'd go to federal prison for trading on a tip from your cousin. These people are front running war decisions with billion dollar bets and no one asks a single question. With every policy, tariff or war announcement, the same pattern repeats. Massive trades minutes before instant profits and zero consequences. The game's rigged and they're not even trying to hide it anymore. Well, they don't have to hide it because it's anonymous. It can't be traced back to them or their businesses by us and the public. Currently there is not any stronger specific legislation regarding these betting sites that are stopping them from doing this. So obviously people have started getting concerned and I think we have to be fair and we have to ask, you know, is this just very lucky people? Are these people that are just addicted to gambling with money to blow, or is there something more corrupt and sinister going on now? In my opinion, there is definitely something sinister happening with American dog food. And that is why Alex and I trust Sunday's Food for dogs. And when it comes to your dogs, it always seems like there is a compromise when it comes to their food. It is either fresh and healthy or it's convenient, easy to store and serve. Which is why I love Sundays for dogs, because it means I don't have to compromise on anything. Because starting 10 years ago, after a cancer scare with my old beloved Great Pyrenees Ollie, my mom and I made the decision to switch all of our dogs to a low carb diet. We were ahead of the keto phase, but we had to make it completely ourselves. We sourced all the meat from local butchers, we ground it. We had to then find ways to store this like bloody mess in our freezer. It was just awful. But it was worth it. Now 10 years later, Alex and I have multiple Saint Bernards with allergies and chronic ear and yeast infections. And we have tried. We literally every convenient frozen raw food on the market and with how much they eat and with storing and handling the food, it was just so hard, so messy. But it was worth it again because we didn't wanna compromise and just go get her kibble. Which is why we love Sunday's food for dogs and we love their air dry technology. And thank goodness we found them. So their founder, a veterinarian and a mom, got tired of seeing the so called premium kibble dog foods just be chock full of fillers and synthetics. So she designed sundaes which is air dried real food made in a human food grade kitchen using the same ingredients and care that you would use to go for yourself and your family. Every bit is clean. It's packed with real meat, fruit and veggies. No weird ingredients, no fillers. And compared to kibble and other brands, Sundaes invests 50 times more in its ingredients for true premium quality, no cost cutting. And the best of all, guys, oh my God. You are getting the high quality with all the convenience. You just scoop and serve. No freezer, no thawing, no prep, no bloody mess. It is just nutrient rich food that fuels their happiest and healthy days. We started buying from Sundaes over a year ago. It has changed the game for our pack of dogs because they literally go through essentially a bag a day. It's crazy. They love it. So, so make the switch to Sundays today. Just go right now to sundaysfordogs.com Brett50 and get 50% off of your first order. Or you could use code Brett50 at checkout. Again, that is 50% off your first order at sundays4dogs.com Brett50 I know you are going to love this. And while Sundays is focused on taking care of your dogs, my friends over at Hallow are gonna take care of your soul. Now obviously Easter is rapidly approaching and if you feel like you haven't really made the most of this Lenten season, I want you to know that Hallow's program lent pray 40 the return is still going strong and you are welcome to jump in now. Just this is their 202640 day prayer journey to Easter featuring Jonathan Roumie, Mark Wahlberg, Father Mike Schmitz, Sister Miriam James, Chris Pratt, and so many more. It is centered on the parable of the Prodigal Son and it reminds us that we are never too far gone. And so if you are just hearing about this now, if you feel compelled to join, it is the perfect time. It's never too late for you. You will find daily prayer and meditations, Friday fasts, honest conversations, and powerful Sunday homilies. And so if you are done carrying the weight and you're ready to come home and get centered and pray 40 the return is waiting for you over on Hallow. Get 3 months free at hallow.com cooper again, go download the app or go to hallow.com cooper and you will get 3 months free
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this episode is brought to you by Alexa. Say hello to Alexa and see how Alexa can do more for you. Need tickets to that last minute show? Craving your favorite restaurant? Sit back, relax and talk. Naturally, Alexa's on it. Alexa learns your preferences to create a personalized experience and now Alexa is free with prime on your Amazon devices like echo and Fire TV. Learn more at Amazon.com AlexaPlus Back to the point on whether these are just lucky guesses or whether this is sinister. I would personally argue that choosing to bet on the lives of American servicemen, bet on the fate of their families, is sinister in and of itself. But that is just me. So already I'm drawing the line in the sand on this. It grosses me out. But in regards to this entire story, here is something even crazier that I think just lends itself to the overarching idea of corruption and hypocrisy. Because to be fair, Trump is not the first president to have to deal with the betting markets and insider trading. It has become an absolute behemoth of a beast that everyone is having to deal with. And under Biden, Polymarket was actually being investigated for illegally Operating in the United States. The founder was raided by the FBI, had his phone taken the whole nine yards. And during his 2024 campaign, Trump ran obviously on transparency and ending corruption and ending insider trading. But interestingly, by July of last year, the investigation into polymarket was suspended and polymarket then had a pathway for operating here in the United States. Now, to take this even further, coincidentally Now, Donald Trump Jr. Sits on the advisory board with his investment firm being a significant backer of polymarket's legal return to the United States market. Father and son. Now, again, I am not trying to accuse anyone. Allegedly, allegedly, allegedly. I am just trying to point out things that I am seeing. But this is a pattern that people have noticed online. It is something that Alex started noticing like in December, and now it is becoming a bigger and bigger conversation every single day. And the stakes are getting higher and higher. CNN is writing about it. Axios is writing about it. Axios actually posted just a couple days ago and said an epidemic of suspicious trading has emerged around Trump's most consequential decisions. And each time, just minutes or hours before he rattles global markets. It is precisely the kind of alleged corruption that Trump built his political career railing against. Now, I do wanna be clear. I am not accusing Trump of anything. I am not saying that he went and told people and people in his family are doing things. I don't know if that is the case, but obviously it's not just him making these decisions. He cannot take all of his military action alone in the dead of night without other people knowing. Word does get around. And so what I am more inclined to believe is that there are people in his orbit. If they then talk, then people are making money. It is just a slippery slope. Now, Cerdovich, to his credit, went even further talking about the gamification of this. And he posted this, he said, our armed forces members will be killed in order for insider traders to make a profit. This is treason. But New Maga, whatever that means today, doesn't care. They are probably in on it and unfortunately they kind of are from top to bottom. And you might be wondering, you know, why has this not become a bigger topic of conversation? Why is everybody not doing episodes about this when we were so excited about ending corruption and doge and transparency and all of the things? Well, one of the reasons why you're probably not hearing about it is because most people are sponsored by either Kalshi or Polymarket. I mean, just take a look at this screen. Grab that somebody screen recorded and posted and take note of the paid partnership label under most of these organic reposts that you are seeing right here. Now to be fair, I want to say I like a lot of these people. I am even friends with a couple of them. This is not to shame anyone for working with an advertiser that I would not or not talking about a specific issue. I'm not here to create any issue. I just do think that this is relevant information as to why this might not be a bigger story. And what is even crazier, guys, is that polymarket has hands in every single side, every single faction within the right. They're on the left. Like for example, they have Matt Gaetz and Laura Loomer to do the same campaign to repost the same post. They have the Krasnstein, Krasnstein, whoever they are. They have those brothers, they have Harry Sisson even on payroll. Everybody is being paid now. On top of that, they are actively trying to bring in more and more journalists to sponsor, which you can see here. This is an article from the Verge. Prediction markets are trying to lure journalists with partnership deals. Now, as I said, all of this has been blowing up over the last month as people have started to put the pieces together Eczema is unpredictable, but you can flare less with epglis, a once monthly treatment for moderate to severe eczema after an initial four month or longer dosing phase. About four in ten people taking ebglis achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks, and most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing.
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MGLIS Lebracizumab LBKZ a 250mg per 2ml injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema, also called atopic dermatitis, that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. EBGLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you are allergic to Eglis. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with EBGLIS before starting Eglis. Tell your doctor if you have a pair parasitic infection.
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Ask your doctor about EBGLIS and Visit or call 1-800-LILYRX or 1-800-545-5979 taxact can
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think of a million things more fun than filing taxes TaxAct is going to name some now. Sitting in traffic, folding a fitted bedsheet, listening to your co worker talk about his fantasy team digging a hole. Digging an even larger hole next to that original hole. Unfortunately, TaxAct's filing software can't make taxes fun, but TaxAct can help you get them done. Taxact, let's get them over with.
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And you see these new accounts making all this money. And so coincidentally, both of these companies, polymarket and Kalshi, announced literally just three days ago that they would be putting new guardrails in place, this article reads. Kalshi on Monday said that it would preemptively block politicians, athletes and other relevant people from betting on their own campaigns or sporting events. So there's something. At least the same day polymarket announced that it would impose its own guardrails to address insider trading and market manipulation. And simultaneously as they made those announcements, some members of Congress announced that they are pushing for new legislation to do the same thing, but just on the federal level. And so that has landed me here, doing this episode and agreeing, agreeing with aoc. When she posted this, she said, this is sad. I know as a politician these companies are going to spend a billion dollars against me for saying it. But pervasive gambling is not good for society. It turns life into a casino, it traps people in addiction and debt, it surges domestic violence, and it fosters manipulation. She's not wrong. It is a net negative on every level. Now, I did appreciate people pointing out the absurdity of her saying this and then having so many tweets over the years saying sex work is real work. There's no problem with sex work. Like, you could literally replace gambling with sex work and the message of the tweets would be the exact same and they would be just as honest. But that is an episode for another day. I'm not here to debate that, but I did just want to get that jab in there. But again, she's correct. It is both a personal vice that is awful for our society. I think it is incredibly pervasive, especially with young men. And now it could be allegedly, possibly allegedly, fueling more corruption and the manipulation of markets where the elites get richer by betting on our future. So the question that I am asking is that if the incentive is there to bet and then take action based on those bets, then where does that land us in what our government is doing? Is it actually for our benefit? Is it Actually, to protect our futures and protect America. Or is it for something else? That's a question I have. Now the last thing that I will say is that while people are starting to look towards, you know, Kalshi and polymarket, the shady behavior on Wall street has not let up. That might be old school in 2026, but guys, it is still happening. Because the most recent example of it is that at 7am it's just like so typical. At 7am on Monday, before the U.S. markets opened for the week, Trump posted this on Truth Social, basically saying that he was postponing future strikes against Iran and that they were working on a resolution. Now that didn't really last for very long, but at the time people were really excited about a ceasefire. But look what happened. Just mere minutes, less than 15 minutes
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before that tweet, 15 minutes before that Donald Trump post, there was a very big amount of trading volume. Very big. In fact, actually when you're looking at that amount of volume, that spike, that was the biggest trading volume that we saw that day. We're starting here just at 8 o' clock in the morning. We're going through to that moment of the Donald Trump post. Relatively quiet volumes, not much going on in the market and then all of a sudden that. And if you're wondering, okay, maybe this was just a one off, it was someone who made a lucky bet. Have a look not just at this. So this is wti, it's one measure, the US measure of oil. Have a look at Brent, which is the kind of the European seen as the international measure of oil. Again, the same thing. Donald Trump makes his post, flurry of activity, lots of people there. But look at that, 15 minutes before that Donald Trump post, a very big trade. Now it's unclear whether it's just an individual or whether it's a kind of group of people. But what you do know from just imputing what the potential value, the notional value of those trades just on oil would be, it is staggering amounts of money, life changing amounts of money.
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$580 million. Now allegedly, this individual, this group, this collective made over $100 million, I think in 20 minutes, 20 minutes. Like I'm not even this should impact me, but I'm not even surprised anymore. Like, and again, do we keep calling this just a lucky bet, a lucky guess? Or is it a game that us plebs don't get to play? Because we have seen this time and time again and now with Polymarket and Kalshi, we are just seeing the modern iteration of this Game, but with fewer guardrails and less transparency. So, yeah, I think we have the right to be asking these questions.
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Oh, my gosh.
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I just got my phone bill, and it is absolutely insane. I've got to call and figure out what's going on. Hello, valued customer. Hi, yeah, I just had a quick question about my phone plan. One moment while I transfer you. Uh, hello. I was just wondering why my phone bill increased. Classic. Their customer service is based in another galaxy. Listen, sir, please transfer me. I do not speak Martian. Run. Ahoy there, matey. Ye've reached the billing deck. What be your quarrel? No, absolutely not. Why is this representative a pirate? Yura can't be caught in rough waters, lass. Looks like ye've been charged 50 extra doubloons. I'm sorry, 50 what? Doubloons. Plunder payment, if ye will. I just want to know why my bill went up $50. Let me transfer ye to another scallywag. Is this a cat? Okay, that's it. I'm switching to PeerTalk.
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