The connection is that the binary options stuff has basically been mostly booted from the EU/US and is now targetting Arab countries, and is a prime example of Israelis quietly doing business with Saudis
> In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission approved exchange-traded binary options in 2008. Trading commenced on the American Stock Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) in May and June, 2008.
Also it seems that in Israel they are working on banning marketing it overseas
> In Israel, where a high concentration of such firms can be found, binary options trading was prohibited for Israeli customers in March 2016, on the grounds that it is a form of gambling and not a legitimate investment technique. A ban on marketing of binary options to overseas customers is under consideration.
Binary options per se are not banned in America, but you have to have proper regulatory approval. The companies running binary options gambling operations wouldn't be able to meet the approval requirements, because usually those companies don't actually match buyers and sellers directly, so they manipulate the prices more like a bookmaking operation than a financial market.
There is a market that is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that only has binary options, but they don't take positions in their own market and meet other regulatory requirements. They even offer binary options on events (Fed funds rate movement, for example) so it acts as a prediction market of sorts. Whether it actually provides a net benefit to the world aside from gambling is very much in question though. I find it hard to believe that people are using their binary options for hedging.
