Senators demand crackdown on wildfire "prediction market" bets

Discussion (12 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

autoexec•about 1 hour ago

These senators who don't want people to gamble on, profit from, and create/fuel horrific disasters all have Ds after their names while the person they're begging to do something to stop this, Michael Selig, has an R after his name and also worked as a corporate lawyer for cryptocurrency firms and prediction markets before he was appointed by Trump to regulate those same industries.

This "demand" letter will be ignored, or at most laughed at. The letter is just a PR piece, a reminder to the public of who wants to help them instead of profit off of them, but it's not going to solve the problem. I sure hope they plan on doing a lot more than signing a strongly worded letter.

sixQuarks•about 2 hours ago

This is insane. Predictive markets should already be illegal in the first place but to allow things like this is just insane

kelseyfrog•about 2 hours ago

Prediction markets allow us to quantify risk. (Un)expectedly we learned that the existence of a prediction market for an event increases its risk as long as someone capable of triggering the event stands to gain financially from its outcome.

toasty228•about 1 hour ago

> Prediction markets allow us to quantify risk.

Might as well derivate it from existing casino's roulette games, it's not like anyone betting on these are subject experts.

It's pure greed and fomo, sprinkled with a bit of cheating and corruption.

kelseyfrog•about 1 hour ago

Theoretically, being a SME means having an edge with which one can extract money. Agree or disagree? Why?

claudetard•35 minutes ago

No, they're just gambling, and crime markets.

paxys•about 1 hour ago

It is not unexpected but something people have been shouting about since the idea was first floated.

colingauvin•about 2 hours ago

Is there any niche yet capitalism has not exploited to its fullest? Why do we think it wouldn't here?

kelseyfrog•about 2 hours ago

Is there not a prediction market for senator crackdowns too?

Senators demand crackdown on wildfire "prediction market" bets

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Discussion (12 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews