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nemomarx 2 days ago

This makes sense to me, but isn't there a risk of increasing the potential payoff high enough that someone is motivated to go out and make the yes side happen?

Consider this bot running on us military outcomes or something.

cryptonym 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

By design it's a game where people with inside knowledge or enough power to bend reality can steal money from people with gambling addiction. Automating your addiction might not be the best move.

nkrisc 2 days ago | parent [-]

This is what markets like Polymarket boil down to. Normies can't win. Some will, of course, but that's just chance and there's no way if ensuring it's you.

It's really no different than a casino: if you ever find yourself with more money than you walked in with, cash out and leave.

Best strategy for most people though is to simply not participate and you'll break even.

cryptonym a day ago | parent | next [-]

I fully agree with not participating and would go even further: it's far worse than a casino, which was already bad. It's not regulated. It has a stronger impact on the outside world. With bets you can put a target on people job or head.

Bratmon 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You say that like it's bad thing, but really it's great!

It gives us normies a way to see what the powerful are thinking.

kelvinjps10 2 days ago | parent [-]

normies that don't enter the game, because the ones that do just loose their money

conductr 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Except, the thing is, a decent portion of the population enjoys throwing money away in casinos. If they feel a similar level of enjoyment/entertainment from this type of market, then it's no different and they're playing for a non-financial purpose that your calculus isn't pricing in. Maybe a stretch but theoretically, if they enjoy it enough, it can serve as a much cheaper alternative to a casino and thus could actually have a positive net return to one's personal finances even while losing.

And, I'm not even contemplating gambling addiction. There's a huge market of people that just go to Vegas once or twice a year and come home thousands of dollars poorer. But they don't need it, they may not gamble outside of Vegas, or nothing that would signal an addiction.

JumpCrisscross 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

> If they feel a similar level of enjoyment/entertainment from this type of market, then it's no different

If Polymarket were regulated like a casino, I’d actually have no problem with it.

cryptonym a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> I don't have a gambling addiction, I just enjoy throwing money away in casinos. I come home thousands of dollars poorer. It's a net return to my finances. Totally healthy.

Weird way to validate polymarket.

kelvinjps10 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

how can it be cheaper? people will spend the same amount or even more considering that is more easy to spend more since it's digital

conductr 2 days ago | parent [-]

It's all hypothetical of course but I know Vegas has some high table/game minimums and these markets can be pretty cheap if you just want a piece of action. Also, eliminates the cost of actually traveling.

Again, no idea if anyone sees this as a true substitute or not. My guess is not as Polymarket bets don't feel entertaining at all (IMO). So it's not filling that void for anyone, but it hypothetically could.

Spooky23 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

You're thinking like an engineer and making the laughable assumption that "prediction markets" are markets. It's totally unregulated with all sorts of grifts and cheats. One of the platforms was promoting a high-return bet against Rory at the Masters yesterday.

You can make money off of all sorts of stuff. You can "sell" the bets, so there's lots of live pump and dump.

We've gone full circle. The bookie with no neck that smelled like onions was more honest than these platforms.

HWR_14 2 days ago | parent [-]

Wouldn't a high-return bet against Rory make sense? He was very likely to win.

Spooky23 2 days ago | parent [-]

Sure.

But isn’t weird the betting platform is sending an app notification saying “hey bet on this dude to win $X”?