Scratch Alpaca

About Scratch Alpaca

According to Çiftçi, the rapid growth of digital payments and cryptocurrencies has transformed illegal betting into a major conduit for money laundering. 

“Casinos, junkets, cryptocurrencies and underground banking are the most critical parts of the money laundering infrastructure that fuels international organised crime,” he said at the time. “The global gambling market will reach $205 billion in 2030.”

The government blocked 548,420 illegal betting and gambling websites between 2006 and 2025, including 84,000 in 2025 alone. 

What is Scratch Alpaca?

Following an extended three-day holiday for Labor Day Weekend, Polymarket went live with a colourful 90-second spot directed by award-winning filmmaker Peter Berg, the director of the acclaimed television series Friday Night Lights. The spot, which featured the likes of Eli Manning, Derek Jeter, Richard Sherman, John Leguizamo and Spike Lee, among other celebrities, coincided with the launch of Squads, a new social experience within the US Polymarket app.  

According to a Polymarket news release, the new initiative will give users a dedicated place to talk markets, share their picks and trade together directly on Polymarket.

“People are constantly debating what’s going to happen next with their friends and sharing predictions in group chats,” said Travis VanderZanden, who serves as chief growth officer at Polymarket. “With Squads, we’re bringing the conversation and trading together so friends can follow the events they care about and make their predictions in one place.”

About Scratch Alpaca

In his 2022 letter to shareholders, he criticized mobile trading apps that make day trading and speculative positioning effortless, accusing them of turning the stock market into a “gambling parlor.”

Two years later, Buffett again targeted the “gamblification” of financial markets in his annual shareholder letter.

“Markets now exhibit far more casino-like behavior than they did when I was young. The casino now resides in many homes and daily tempts the occupants,” Buffett wrote, noting that extreme volatility makes identifying sound, long-term investments vastly more difficult.