The insider information has always been leaking. Now studios are trying to stop staff from turning it into money.

Hollywood studios and production companies have quietly begun banning employees from placing bets on prediction markets tied to their own work, according to a November 5 exclusive from The Hollywood Reporter. The policies cover casting decisions, release dates, studio earnings, and award nominations. At least one company has set up an anonymous internal hotline so employees can report colleagues suspected of betting.

Penske Media Corporation, the parent company of Variety, Deadline, and The Hollywood Reporter, updated its employee handbook in recent weeks to explicitly bar betting on events within its orbit. The updated policy applies whether or not the activity constitutes insider trading or securities trading under applicable laws, according to THR.

The trigger was James Bond. BetOnline reportedly pulled its market on the next 007 after a sudden surge of sharp money moved heavily toward Callum Turner, raising concerns about a leak from inside the production. It followed a February incident in which Kalshi disclosed that a video editor at MrBeast's company allegedly made $5,000 using confidential content information. That employee was fired and fined $20,000.

The question is whether any of this will work. Columbia Law professor Joshua Mitts, who co-authored a March 2026 study estimating $143 million in anomalous profits on Polymarket over two years, told THR there has been "an explosion in the number of employers who have to think about insider trading rules." But he and other experts are skeptical of enforcement. Bets placed on blockchain-based platforms are difficult for employers to trace to individual accounts, and the rules cannot stop someone from tipping a friend or family member instead of betting directly.

The CFTC opened a public comment process this summer to determine which event contracts should be permitted. Betting on the Oscars and Emmys may be allowed, the agency indicated, since those awards depend on evaluative judgment. Box office receipts have a harder legal ceiling: the Onion Futures Act of 1958 explicitly prohibits bets on motion picture grosses. That 68-year-old commodity law may be the strongest weapon studios have. The rest is policy, not law. And policy is hard to enforce when the ledger is a blockchain.