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Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile story

timesofisrael.com

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Re: Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile story

#631
post #409
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(as reported by Quincy Institute, a thoroughly pro-Russian think tank)

Quincy Institute is not tied to Russia and condemns the invasion

You're welcome to find a piece of their writing where they unequivocally support Ukraine without ifs, buts, and NATO-didits.

Re: Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile story

#632

I really wonder whether privacy would actually be the answer here --- prediction markets as they are now where the odds are public really shouldn't be called prediction markets, they should be called "outcome-shaping markets" because largely that is what they do, they let people shape real-world outcomes with massive amounts of liquidity. If instead these were privacy protocols where you can see how much liquidity is…

Why would anybody make a bet if they don't know the odds or payout?

Slot machines are popular for a reason. Most folks playing them don’t know or care about the odds.

Re: Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile story

#633

I really wonder whether privacy would actually be the answer here --- prediction markets as they are now where the odds are public really shouldn't be called prediction markets, they should be called "outcome-shaping markets" because largely that is what they do, they let people shape real-world outcomes with massive amounts of liquidity. If instead these were privacy protocols where you can see how much liquidity is…

This doesn't make any sense…

If you want to bet on a binary outcome without knowing how much other participants are betting on the 2 possible outcomes, that's a bookie, not a prediction market.

The entire rationale for claiming that prediction markets "aren't just gambling" and have a legitimate social value is that they surface sentiment and valuation in a transparent and credible way.

(And that's even before we get to the fact that any kind of betting dependent on journalistic work could incentivize outcomes like the death threats reported here.)

Re: Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile story

#634
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(as reported by Quincy Institute, a thoroughly pro-Russian think tank)

ISW confirmed unauthorised edits were made, and fired a staffer over it. Not sure why you feel the need to comment this. Classic lowbrow dismissal https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4726248

Your link points to a 2012 discussion of "Why an Airline That Travelers Love Is Failing". Not super convincing.

Re: Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile story

#635
post #575

[flagged]

Look, it's not the point your making, but Adam Smith was not a laissez-faire capitalist. If you want to do the "capitalism bad" thing, I would suggest learning a bit of history, or at least understand that the " laissez-faire " in laissez-faire capitalism is a political ideology, not an economic ideology. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/11/the-gu... More to your point... I don't think economic theo…

Excuse my ignorance if otherwise obvious—but how does legalized but untaxed gambling raise any public revenue? Bookie licensing?

Re: Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile story

#636

[flagged]

Wild misunderstanding of Smith. He considered it a moral defect, wrote several pieces criticizing gambling, and criticized state run gambling.

"The over-weening conceit which the greater part of men have of their own abilities, is an ancient evil... their absurd presumption in their own good fortune, is even more universal."

Re: Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile story

#637
post #630

[flagged]

Yes famous libertine Adam Smith, up there with Marquis de Sade and Ami Perrin Your logical conclusion is a slippery slope. Lets follow your argument to it's logical conclusion, humans are evil therefore, regulate all their actions, imprison them, kill all humans OMG you are sooo evil I'm absolutely shook. How could you! Why ought we take your misunderstandings to the"ir natural" extreme?

I don't think "regulate all their actions, imprison them, kill all humans" is the logical conclusion of "prediction markets incentivize antisocial behavior".

Re: Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile story

#638

[flagged]

Adam Smith actually would be against stuff like this. He gets misrepresented.

It really doesn't matter here, in specific, if he is misrepresented. He came up with the "invisible hand" concept and he didn't consider its shadow/consequences. He shouldn't be personally faulted for it, he was just one man sharing his thinking a long time ago. Living people are to blame for not correcting for these shortcomings enough. I learned that it would have been best to have just said laissez-faire capitalism instead of invoking his name.

Re: Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile story

#639

Sooner or later a college athlete is gonna get killed for missing a shot. Freedom ain't free I guess.

Yes. Or for making a shot.

If you read some of the now-copious reporting about gamblers targeting athletes with death threats, you'll see that they have people screaming at them and threatening them violently both for performing badly and for performing well.

Truly unhinged and alarming that gambling has been legalized and marketed so quickly and so extensively, in so many forms.

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