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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

#771
post #767

At the time of the threats the odds were likely very skewed, as in over 99% to one side. For events where a single article could be a fulcrum, it seems like a feasible strategy to wager on the 1% and then try to manipulate the writer into changing the outcome. The chances of success will be low, but likely higher than 1% therefore the expected value[1] may be high. Most people on Polymarket are gamblers and have no i…

> Most people on Polymarket are gamblers Every person on Polymarket is a gambler. By definition.

Some people are insiders though.

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

#772
post #578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I propose odds based on US insurance life tables for people of their age and gender, which side of the bet would you like to take?

The over. Rich people live longer.

Yes. I add that google says: "controlling for substance abuse reduces the gap by about 60% for men and 36% for women". I couldn't get it to quantify the effect of obesity.

There are other imponderable factors at work. For example, does not-wealthy cause substance abuse or does substance abuse cause not-wealthy?

We are all the sum of our choices.

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

#773

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 capitalis…

> He came up with the "invisible hand" concept and he didn't consider its shadow/consequences Smith wrote about the political economy. He absolutely considered the balance between public and market interests. Most people talking about The Wealth of Nations have never read it.

A hint is in the name, it's called the wealth of nations not the wealth of the sovereign individual.

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

#774
post #767

At the time of the threats the odds were likely very skewed, as in over 99% to one side. For events where a single article could be a fulcrum, it seems like a feasible strategy to wager on the 1% and then try to manipulate the writer into changing the outcome. The chances of success will be low, but likely higher than 1% therefore the expected value[1] may be high. Most people on Polymarket are gamblers and have no i…

> Most people on Polymarket are gamblers Every person on Polymarket is a gambler. By definition.

I think they mean "most people are gamblers _who_ have no idea what they're doing"

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

#775

So Polymarket would settle the bet based on reporting from a single source? That seems to be very open to manipulation. In fact, for something as inconsequential as this, I'd just bet heavily myself if I were the reporter.

There exists a sensible way to handle this. It is to require at least three independent news outlet reports of an event (as defined in the bet). A related issue is that war news is heavily censored in Israel; it's difficult for news outlets to report it.

It's also hard to have 3 independent outlets report on all the thing.s This seems like a small story that only some people in Polymarket cared about I guess? It's not like 3 different news outlets were calling authorities to confirm what really happened here. It wasn't big enough to deserve more than 1 journalist going to the source and doing all this work.

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

#776

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there's a fair point to be made that Polymarket and similar sites are not fundamentally different from e.g. sports betting. not fundamentally different as in "live or die" you mean? the whole point of sports is that you compete whilst appreciating each others' humanity.

I honestly don't know what your point is. The best I can come up with is: "The whole point of sports (in my opinion) is X good thing therefore betting on sports is more acceptable" Making bets on good things doesn't make the betting better. Just because Polymarket would allow you to bet money that the infant homicide rate goes down next year, doesn't mean it's a good thing to allow betting on.

... if I post a multi-paragraph long reply on the incentives created by betting on less infant homicide, am I going to find out that you understand perfectly well what the incentives are, and that was the entire point of your comment?

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

#777

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there's a fair point to be made that Polymarket and similar sites are not fundamentally different from e.g. sports betting. not fundamentally different as in "live or die" you mean? the whole point of sports is that you compete whilst appreciating each others' humanity.

I honestly don't know what your point is. The best I can come up with is: "The whole point of sports (in my opinion) is X good thing therefore betting on sports is more acceptable" Making bets on good things doesn't make the betting better. Just because Polymarket would allow you to bet money that the infant homicide rate goes down next year, doesn't mean it's a good thing to allow betting on.

His point is pretty simple. Sports don't inherently involve life or death, the whole point is that it's a competition that "respects each other's humanity", eg not a competition to the death.

The same can't be said for war (bombings), which Polymarket allows betting on.

Seems like a fundamental difference to me.

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

#779

As someone generally against gambling, I think there's a fair point to be made that Polymarket and similar sites are not fundamentally different from e.g. sports betting. The issue of bribing/threatening a sports player to throw a game has existed for over a century. It's not a new problem. The only thing special about Polymarket is the expansion of surface area. My preferred solution would be to just ban it all, or…

Banning it sends it underground into the hands of organised crime, which will still have access to modern technology. There's going to be a net loss, but it's probably better to regulate it than have another war on drugs.

It was only a few years ago that sports betting was significantly more heavily regulated and limited, and stuff like Polymarket didn't exist (just non-monetary forecasting sites like Metaculus.) Even if there was more demand for "underground gambling" before these changes, the net negative to society was still significantly less.

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

#780
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but how do you find the person making the threats? Polymarket accounts are more-or-less just a crypto address. Whatsapp accounts are somewhat easier to link to a real identity, but still not hard to at least obscure a bit. The arm of the law struggles to reach across borders, and on the internet, it's quite plausible all those involved are in different jurisdictions.

In this case the threats all seemed to be delivered in Hebrew, so it's plausible that those involved resided in Israel.

Because translation is so very hard?
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