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US Senators Urge Crackdown on Wildfire Betting Amid Warnings of Arson Risk

Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, quoted by The Guardian.

As the United States faces another intense wildfire season, a group of U.S. lawmakers is sounding the alarm over prediction market platforms that allow users to bet on these fires, and experts warn such actions potentially raises the risk of arson.

The Guardian reports, huge wildfires in Washington state and Oregon have burned more than 2m acres and forced tens of thousands to evacuate.

Ann Skeet, senior director of leadership ethics, commended the senators’ demands of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and says offering bets on how a wildfire spreads could incentivize people to commit arson.

“Somebody could place a bet and then be motivated to actually start a fire,” Skeet said. “There’s just the practical reality of what it is you might be motivating people to do.”

 

Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, quoted by The Guardian.

 

 

Ethics
media, leadership