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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

#651

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

Related to your comment, see Nate Silver's take on the NBA gambling scandal.

"Player props are inherently more subject to manipulation because only one player needs to be involved in rigging the outcome. [...] Even as someone more sympathetic to gambling than most people you’re probably reading on this story, I’m not sure I’d really care if player prop bets were banned entirely. They produce abusive behavior toward players. They also often put team and individual performance into tension with one another..."

https://www.natesilver.net/p/the-nba-gambling-scandal-explai...

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

#652

[flagged]

Adam Smith's libertine didn't allow the concept of rent-seeking entities. It sure as well wouldn't allow polymarket gamblers "As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce." "[the landlord leaves the worker] with the smallest share with which the tenant can content himself witho…

I can understand how you would call inside traders rent seekers. I don't understand the connection for some guy betting a hundred bucks. What's "parasitic" about the median person on the site?

(Also landlords only gain all the surplus when the entire system is super biased. It's not inherent to the concept of landlording. What's the alternative to having landlords anyway?)

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

#653
Many of the comments in this discussion remind me of that Rothchild analysis in the second half of the 1800s when France had problems with a revolution.

> A friend asked Baron Rothschild what he was doing in response to Paris Commune:

> “Why,” replied the famous banker musingly, “French government bonds are selling at sixty-five. I bought five millions yesterday.”

> “What!” exclaimed the friend. “Bought bonds? Why, France is without a government, and the sewers of Paris are running red with blood!”

> “Yes, it is deplorable,” remarked the baron, “but if the sewers of Paris were not running red with blood, I could not buy bonds at this price. France will survive this terrible calamity, as she survived the Revolution, and the seven coalitions against her of all the powers of Europe. Her credit will again be the highest of any nation, and her bonds will sell again above par.”

People who oppose gambling tend to see this as a foreign capitalist selfishly making money off of the dire situation of the French people. People who do not oppose gambling see it as financial support of the French in their times of trouble when others have abandoned them.

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

#654
post #647
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Please give me a single example backing up the claim that Quincy Institute is "a thoroughly pro-Russian think tank" On their page "Quincy Institute’s Position on Russia-Ukraine" they say at the very beginning: > We categorically condemn Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and support U.S. assistance for Ukraine’s self-defense. https://quincyinst.org/2022/07/12/quincy-institutes-position...

It has been suggested that QI’s approach is insufficiently critical of Russia.

https://quincyinst.org/2022/07/12/quincy-institutes-position...

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

#655
post #653

Many of the comments in this discussion remind me of that Rothchild analysis in the second half of the 1800s when France had problems with a revolution. > A friend asked Baron Rothschild what he was doing in response to Paris Commune: > “Why,” replied the famous banker musingly, “French government bonds are selling at sixty-five. I bought five millions yesterday.” > “What!” exclaimed the friend. “Bought bonds? Why, F…

This has nothing to do with opposing gambling. It has everything to do with, say, opposing gamblers poisoning horses to win bets.

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

#656
post #653

Many of the comments in this discussion remind me of that Rothchild analysis in the second half of the 1800s when France had problems with a revolution. > A friend asked Baron Rothschild what he was doing in response to Paris Commune: > “Why,” replied the famous banker musingly, “French government bonds are selling at sixty-five. I bought five millions yesterday.” > “What!” exclaimed the friend. “Bought bonds? Why, F…

You applied the razor very well here.

There will always be a market.

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

#657

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…

Should be the opposite IMO. I don't think anonymity should exist on websites that are publicly accessible.

If people want to start forming their own meshnets over wifi or LoRA or whatever and remain anonymous, then all the power to them - because those kind of people are the exact opposite of the type of people who make death threats to journalists.

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

#659

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can look bad, but this is just an aspect of human behavior en masse that we don’t normally get to see. A long time ago there was an incident on a military base. A man had gotten up on a building to commit suicide, and while the officers tried to convince him not to jump, the drafted soldiers gathered underneath and started chanting “jump, jump” because of a rule that said witnessing the suicide of a fellow soldier…

I think that's horribly fatalistic perspective. Yes, humans can be bad. But humans can change. Let's not start accepting bad stuff as not so bad, simply because it is "just human behavior".

Yes - and further, even if something is "just human behavior", that doesn't mean it's never beneficial to humans to legally regulate the enablement or exploitation of that behavior.

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

#660
Here's what a spokesperson for Polymarket said:

"Polymarket condemns the harassment and threats directed at Emanuel Fabian, or anyone else for that matter. This behavior violates our terms of service and has no place on our platform or anywhere else. Prediction markets depend on the integrity of independent reporting. Attempts to pressure journalists to alter their reporting undermine that integrity and undermine the markets themselves."

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/polymarket-bett...

(I'd prefer if it said they were evaluating whether to limit the types of bets accepted to make the possibility of harassing journalists less likely.)

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