• Prosecutors say Gannon Van Dyke used military secrets to make trades on Polymarket.
• Kalshi says he tried to open an account on its platform but was blocked.
• Van Dyke, a master sergeant at Fort Bragg, was indicted on multiple felonies.

The Army Special Forces soldier indicted on charges that he used military secrets to win over $400,000 in Polymarket trades was blocked from opening an account on rival prediction market platform, Kalshi.

Elisabeth Diana, head of communications for Kalshi, told Business Insider that Gannon Van Dyke did not make it past the verification and know-your-customer process but declined to provide more details. Reuters, citing an unnamed source, had earlier reported that Van Dyke tried but failed to gain access to Kalshi.

Van Dyke, a 38-year-old master sergeant assigned to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, was charged with wire fraud and other felonies for placing more than $33,000 in trades related to US action in Venezuela, prosecutors said.

The career soldier was involved in the planning and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and used classified information to make his bets, the indictment alleges.

Van Dyke is being prosecuted in New York, but made his first appearance in federal court in North Carolina on Friday. The court docket states that the government did not seek to detain him, and he was released on $250,000 bond.

He is represented by federal public defenders, who did not respond to a request for comment. He also did not respond to a call from Business Insider.

Polymarket did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the vetting Van Dyke underwent when he signed up for an account. The company said that it tipped off the feds to Van Dyke's trades.

In a statement on X, CEO Shayne Coplan said, "Noise aside, the reality is we work proactively with all relevant authorities on any suspicious activity on our marketplace. We flagged this, referred it, and cooperated throughout the process. This happens constantly behind the scenes, despite what many are led to believe."

Critics have raised alarms about the potential of insider trading on prediction markets and fretted about the possibility that the markets or the current events that fuel them could be manipulated for profit. Kalshi bans insider trading, and Polymarket bans trades based on confidential information.

Kalshi earlier this week said it suspended three political candidates for trading on their own elections as the platform moves to crack down on insider trading.

Asked about the Van Dyke case by reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, President Donald Trump said he wasn't a big fan of prediction markets.

"The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino," Trump, who once owned several casinos, said. "I don't like it, conceptually, but it is what it is."

Michael Selig, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates prediction markets, has defended the businesses, at one point calling them "valuable to society."

The commission filed a civil complaint against Van Dyke in federal court on Thursday.

• Two consumer bankruptcy attorneys said they're seeing more younger clients.
• The lawyers cited rising living costs and stagnant wages as drivers of the trend.
• They also said they're seeing more clients with massive debt, thanks to online gambling.

For some young adults crushed by heavy debt loads, bankruptcy has emerged as an escape hatch.

Two consumer bankruptcy attorneys told Business Insider they've seen a noticeable uptick in Gen Z and young millennial clients, ages of 25 and 35, in recent years — with one saying their share has increased severalfold.

The lawyers pointed to soaring living costs, lagging wages, and the ease of racking up credit card debt as key forces behind the trend. Factors like buy now, pay later loans and online betting are accelerating the rate at which some young people spiral into debt, they said.

"We're definitely seeing more young filers, and it's not because they're irresponsible," said Florida bankruptcy attorney Chad Van Horn. "It's because they entered adulthood during one of the most financially distorted environments in decades."

Personal bankruptcy filings in the United States have been on the rise since their COVID pandemic-era low in 2022. Still, they remain far short of the post-Great Recession peak in 2010, when cases topped about 1.5 million.

More than 533,000 individual bankruptcy cases were filed last year, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, citing data from Epiq Bankruptcy Analytics.

Nearly 333,000 of those 2025 filings were Chapter 7 cases — the most common form of personal bankruptcy — which can erase most unsecured debts, including credit card balances or medical bills.

Chapter 13 filings, which involve a repayment plan to pay down some or all debts, accounted for just over 200,000 cases.

"What we're seeing is sort of the hangover from several years of government stimulus and all the various economic things that have driven up costs and expenses while keeping wages fairly flat," said Ed Boltz, a North Carolina bankruptcy attorney.

High consumer debt for young filers

Although there's no comprehensive, official data source tracking the ages of bankruptcy filers in the US, both Boltz and Van Horn said young adults are now showing up in greater numbers than before, pushing Van Horn's firm to rethink how it markets to clients.

"It's extremely surprising," said Van Horn, adding that 30% to 35% of his firm's roughly 4,000 clients last year were between the ages of 25 and 35. Historically, he said, that age group made up just 5% to 10% of the caseload.

The surge in younger clients has forced Van Horn's law firm to change its marketing strategy, the attorney said.

"We need to be where the 25 to 35 year olds are because they're not necessarily in the same place that the 55 year old is getting their information from," said Van Horn.

As Business Insider has previously reported, a wave of recent TikTok videos shows young people championing bankruptcy as a way to wipe out massive amounts of debt. Some called bankruptcy the "best" decision they've ever made.

Boltz said his firm handled about 2,000 bankruptcy cases in 2025, with about 20% of clients in the 25 to 35 range. He noted that it's unclear whether young adults now represent a larger share of filers overall or whether the increase reflects the broader rise in cases.

Even so, Boltz said his firm has seen the greatest growth in bankruptcy filings from young adults and seniors in recent years.

Young filers often carry significant student loan debt, which is generally not dischargeable in bankruptcy. They also face escalating housing and living costs that put more strain on their budgets, the attorneys said.

Ready access to credit cards, personal loans, and buy now, pay later programs has compounded the problem, making it easy for young people to rack up debt quickly, they said.

"That formula is just a bad formula for Gen Z," said Van Horn, who explained that many once relied on gig work to close budget gaps. "But a lot of them are burning out, and that work isn't paying what it used to."

He said substantial consumer debt is a common factor among his younger clients. And for some, online sports betting has become a major contributor to that debt.

Gambling debts are also on the rise

Both Van Horn and Boltz told Business Insider that they've been seeing a growing number of young clients — men in particular — with tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt accumulated through online gambling.

"The gambling is really the one that has in the last year, year and a half, really taken off," Boltz said, adding, "We've started to see people with $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 of fairly rapid credit card that they've incurred" through online betting.

Van Horn said he's increasingly seen younger people get "addicted to gambling," a trend he believes is being amplified by a culture of FOMO or fear of missing out.

It's the idea, he said, that "everybody's making money, everybody's having fun" and then "you get involved, and you lose all your money."

Popular sports betting companies like DraftKings and FanDuel have recently stopped accepting credit card deposits for bets. DraftKings ended the practice in August, and FanDuel followed earlier this month.

The crypto-based prediction market Polymarket has allowed users to fund their accounts with credit cards since 2024.

"We are seeing a lot more where we have clients who are very young, mid 20s, early 30s, who overwhelmingly tend to be men, who have run up pretty massive credit card debts gambling," said Boltz.

"The apps are explicitly designed to part you from your money."

Are you a young person who has filed for bankruptcy or is considering filing for bankruptcy? Contact this reporter via email at nmusumeci@businessinsider.com.