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Spain blocks prediction markets Polymarket, Kalshi over lack of gambling licence

reuters.com

31–40 of 559 posts

Re: Spain blocks prediction markets Polymarket, Kalshi over lack of gambling licence

#31
When I see people making money on Iran attacks, and murder of heads of state - it shows clearly something is deeply wrong with Polymarket. Its a level worse than Vegas or Indian casinos. A literal ticket to hell. I'm all for banning these evil sites.

Re: Spain blocks prediction markets Polymarket, Kalshi over lack of gambling licence

#32

[flagged]

There are entirely practical reasons that "private decisions of adults" can worsen society as a whole. We need laws and we can debate about nudging that line back and forth, the answers aren't easy. But acting like there shouldn't be a line is nonsensical.

Re: Spain blocks prediction markets Polymarket, Kalshi over lack of gambling licence

#33
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Equities are underlying collateral. Prediction markets are literally just betting on an outcome, no underlying asset exists.

What collateral is underlying the massive, state-sponsored, Spanish lottery ticket and scratch off racket?

I don't think you'd find anyone arguing that the lottery isn't gambling, so I'm not sure what argument you're trying to make here.

Re: Spain blocks prediction markets Polymarket, Kalshi over lack of gambling licence

#35
post #11

These - especially Polymarket - should be illegal globally, as they incentivize people with power to manipulate the real world in horribly destructive ways to win a bet. I would not be surprised if people are murdered at some point to reap the payout of some related bet.

Yeah. You aren't allowed to set up a life insurance policy on someone else's life, or a fire insurance policy on someone else's home. For obvious reasons. But buying an event contract that pays if someone dies or someone's house burns down is fine?

Well, you are privately allowed to bet on whatever you like with another individual. That is indeed legally fine, though potentially distasteful.

Polymarket is facilitating bets between people, not bets with the house. Gambling and insurance are both bets with the house.

Re: Spain blocks prediction markets Polymarket, Kalshi over lack of gambling licence

#36

[flagged]

no they have a securities license. Also while a lot of stuff in stock markets are gambling like, the stock market is a positive sum game where very basic techniques (e.g. index investing) have positive expected values.

The buyers and sellers are not the only ones there, there is also the companies injecting money into it via dividends and stock buy backs, I can be a winner on the stock market without there having to be a loser.

Re: Spain blocks prediction markets Polymarket, Kalshi over lack of gambling licence

#37
post #18

These services run on the blockchain, right? So in effect, there is no blocking them.

Off-ramping to fiat would be criminalised and pursued beyond the wildest dreams of La Liga/Cloudflare. A gambling site you can't withdraw your winnings from is of no interest to anyone.

how's it related to the Cloudflare ?

Re: Spain blocks prediction markets Polymarket, Kalshi over lack of gambling licence

#38
post #12
post #3

They require no gambling license to be a stock broker on the Bolsa de Madrid stock exchange.

How do you defend these slimey companies? They’re actively running a mob casino and you still have people acting like government is the bad guys here. That doesn’t mean there can’t be better regulation of other markets, but comparing prediction markets to stock markets is a huge stretch.

It's not a casino. You aren't betting against the house with polymarket, unlike with gambling sites. You're betting against other players.

Re: Spain blocks prediction markets Polymarket, Kalshi over lack of gambling licence

#39
post #11

These - especially Polymarket - should be illegal globally, as they incentivize people with power to manipulate the real world in horribly destructive ways to win a bet. I would not be surprised if people are murdered at some point to reap the payout of some related bet.

Yeah. You aren't allowed to set up a life insurance policy on someone else's life, or a fire insurance policy on someone else's home. For obvious reasons. But buying an event contract that pays if someone dies or someone's house burns down is fine?

being pedantic here but

> You aren't allowed to set up a life insurance policy on someone else's life, or a fire insurance policy on someone else's home

This isn't really true. Lots of people take out life insurance on others as a hedge for many reasons, small business partner is one. Same fire insurance, we had a case where someone pledged a building as collateral and we took out separate fire insurance on the building so we'd get paid out immediately.

I'm not sure where this false premise started but alot of people believe it.

Re: Spain blocks prediction markets Polymarket, Kalshi over lack of gambling licence

#40
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off-ramping to fiat would be criminalised and pursued beyond the wildest dreams of La Liga/Cloudflare. A gambling site you can't withdraw your winnings from is of no interest to anyone.

how's it related to the Cloudflare ?

spain also blocks cloudflare for copyright infringement
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