Comment Text:
Prediction markets as they are today are a phenomenal way to legalize insider trading, market manipulation, and fraud, and to desensitize the public to gambling on anything and everything at every waking moment.
The CEOs of Polymarket and Kalshi are already openly talking about insider trading not only being acceptable but desirable on their platforms, as that lets them "get the news out fastest", such as White House insiders making millions of dollars betting that the head of state of a foreign nation they're about to bomb and start a war with will be out of office soon. The only speculation on that example is where the insiders got their info, but that money made with the blood of a sovereign nation's leadership has already happened.
Since these markets pose their percentages by amount of money bet and not number of people betting, it is incredibly easy for the wealthiest people on earth to drastically alter the perceived possibility of any market and influence the actions of others.
It's not just financial blows that prediction markets enact on everyday people since the wealthiest accounts see the largest returns, but mental devastation to our society. I don't want to live in a world where gambling is promoted everywhere, including CNN, CNBC, and FOX. I can't imagine how difficult life is right now for anyone who is or has suffered with gambling addictions, or is prone to them. It's like we forgot how gambling addictions are one of the most destructive and deadly addictions people can have because now I can theoretically make money on whether the president is going to say a slur during his next speech. The ability to place bets on this stuff desensitizes people to the depravity of what is happening. It's a lot easier to ignore our obvious decline into fascist authoritarianism when you're focused on if Trump says the word transgender, and you miss the genocidal rhetoric he's actually saying about them.
Sports betting is a blight on our society encouraging the worst behavior we can have, and prediction markets are working to expand that behavior to everything else.
