Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
US Solider Arrested for Betting on Maduro Raid
A US special forces soldier wagered on the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Gannon Ken Van Dyke alledgedly made 13 bets between Christmas 2025 and the end of January this year. He placed around $33,000 dollars on the line with Polymarket, a bookmaker that claims it is a market that predicts the future. He profited by approximately $400,000 if the allegations are true. He now faces 3 counts of violating the Commodity Exchange Act, which regulates predicitns markets to the extent they are regulated at all. He also faces a charge of wire fraud and another of unlawful monetary transaction. If found guilty on all counts, he faces up to 60 years in jail. That hardly seems sufficient for profiting off the possible deaths of his comrades.
Gambling is a rather minor vice. While those addicted to gambling can and do destroy themselves and often their families, most people either do not bother or wager "responsibly." This journal has no real problem with it. It is neither a virtue nor a vice so bad it must be banned and punished. Islam has a useful moral category, "mukrah". Where halal is desirable and moral, and where haram is forbidden, those things labled mukrah are permitted but discouraged. As far as this journal is concerned, gambling is barely mukrah, as one does not even believe discouragement of it is worth the effort.
However, wagering on an event over which one has the power to affect the outcome is the definition of corrupt. Baseball player Pete Rose should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame but received an eternal ban because he used to wager on his own team. Baseball had a world series in 1919 that was rigged by gambler Arnold Rothstein. The scandal endangered the business, because if the games are fixed, or even appear to be fixed, fewer will watch, buy tickets and purchase merchandise. Mr. Rose only bet on his team, but bookies and other gamblers would know something was up on days he did not bet. They presumed his lack of a wager on a given day meant he did not have faith his team would win that day.
Polymarket and its rival Kalshi are enjoying higher revenues and profits as the generation that does not drink has decided to gamble instead. By allowing wagers on almost anything, they have a wide number or revenue streams. To their credit, they have banned three politicians who have wagered on winning their own races. Yet, this is far worse.
"Gannon Ken Van Dyke allegedly betrayed his fellow soldiers by utilizing classified information for his own financial gain," said FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. "Van Dyke profited more than $400,000 by trading various outcomes related to Venezuela after learning of the operation because of his role as a U.S. Army soldier. The FBI will continue to investigate threats to our nation's security especially from those entrusted to safeguard sensitive classified information and military operations."
The problem here is operational security -- op sec for those interested in military jargon. A year or so ago, Secretary of War Crimes Pete Kegsbreath almost lost his job because he included a reported in a group chat on an unsecure communications app called Signal. Had Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic not been a true patriot and disconnected from the chat, the press would have known all about an operation against the Houthi, proxies of Iran.
In the present case, the accused broke op sec on 13 occasions and gave those without a need to know an opportunity to find out tactical details that could have resulted in the deaths of US service members -- all for $400,000.
One hopes that the military trial is fair and the justice is done. One also hopes that the rampaint insider trading and self-dealing of the Trump administration gets the same treatment. But one is highly confident it will not.
The decline under the Trump administration continues to accelerrate
© Copyright 2026 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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