Polymarket adds deposit limits and self-exclusion tools as scrutiny over insider trading grows

Polymarket has rolled out new “responsible trading” features, including irreversible deposit limits, temporary or permanent self-exclusion, and access to gambling addiction treatment through Birches Health. For PSPs and risk teams watching prediction markets, the interesting bit is obvious: the platform is now borrowing directly from the responsible gambling playbook while facing the same two headaches as a sportsbook — insider-trading concerns and problem-gambling exposure.

1. On Wednesday, Polymarket announced consumer protection tools that include irreversible deposit limits, voluntary self-exclusion, and gambling addiction support. The company said the tools are part of its “responsible trading” framework.
2. Polymarket has partnered with Birches Health, a virtual provider of gambling addiction treatment, to connect users to mental health resources when it detects what it calls “compulsive financial trading behaviours.” In practice, that means a prediction-market platform is now building a referral path that looks a lot like the safer-gambling infrastructure used by licensed betting operators.
3. Malea Otranto, Polymarket’s new head of global safety, told CNN that the company will monitor how users interact with its “responsible trading” features and decide whether changes are needed as the platform evolves. She said: “It’s really incredibly important as we continue to grow and accelerate to give people control over how they want to leverage our platform.”
4. The launch comes as prediction markets face growing scrutiny over potential insider trading and the resemblance of their products to traditional gambling offerings. Polymarket and Kalshi have reported more than 100 potential insider trading cases in 2026, with Polymarket referring over 90 accounts and Kalshi more than 50 to authorities.
5. Regulatory enforcement has not kept pace with those reports: the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has brought civil action against only three prediction market traders so far. The cases cited in the source include a US Army master sergeant prosecuted after allegedly using classified information about the US operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to place trades on Polymarket, a former White House teleprompter operator accused of trading on information related to President Donald Trump’s speeches, and former Republican congressman George Santos, who was fined $35,000 after placing $17,000 in Kalshi contracts related to his attendance at the State of the Union address.

For high-risk operators, the signal here is not subtle: prediction markets are starting to import the operational language of gambling compliance — deposit controls, self-exclusion, treatment referrals — while regulators are still dealing with a small number of enforcement actions relative to the volume of suspected abuse. That gap is where PSPs, acquirers, and partner banks usually get dragged into the conversation.