How Kalshi Infects the News • Hacker News Board

Re: How Kalshi Infects the News

#21

Post by keiferski » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 3:20 PM UTC

baggachipz wrote: post #3

The unprecedented era of gambling on literally everything everywhere is an absolute cancer on society, made completely legal by absolute greed and degeneracy at the highest levels of government. I don't know how we put this genie back in the bottle (amongst many detrimental genies).

Society needs to rediscover the idea that not all moral judgements are religious in nature, and in many cases are just basic pragmatic ones.

The bans on gambling were often framed in Christian terms, so as society became more secular, they were undone. Now they probably need to be re-added with practical reasoning.

Re: How Kalshi Infects the News

#22

Post by SoftTalker » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 3:23 PM UTC

dheera wrote: post #8

baggachipz wrote: post #3

The unprecedented era of gambling on literally everything everywhere is an absolute cancer on society, made completely legal by absolute greed and degeneracy at the highest levels of government. I don't know how we put this genie back in the bottle (amongst many detrimental genies).

I mean, it's instilled into society at every level in the US. If your company offers an FSA, it's asking to make a gamble on how much medical needs you'll have in the next 1 year. The "smart" way to write the tax law would be to just let taxpayers deduct whatever medical expenses they have at tax reporting time. But instead, they want you to make a bet because you're highly likely to either (a) not use all of it and…

An FSA should not be a "bet" it should be set up for expenses you know you are going to need to pay: dependent care, recurring care and prescriptions, planned procedures. Your employer, not you, owns the account and keeps any balance remaining at the end of the year so you should not really guess at how much you contribute. An advantage of the FSA is that the full contribution is available immediately but the payroll deductions are spread over the whole year.

Re: How Kalshi Infects the News

#23

Post by JumpinJack_Cash » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 3:23 PM UTC

baggachipz wrote: post #3

The unprecedented era of gambling on literally everything everywhere is an absolute cancer on society, made completely legal by absolute greed and degeneracy at the highest levels of government. I don't know how we put this genie back in the bottle (amongst many detrimental genies).

> > The unprecedented era of gambling on literally everything everywhere is an absolute cancer on society, made completely legal by absolute greed and degeneracy at the highest levels of government. I don't know how we put this genie back in the bottle (amongst many detrimental genies).

It is just showing you in the clear what propaganda managed to hide from you with regards to the stock market and the bond market , and all the other markets for that matter.

Insiders do trade and it's impossible to stop them or catch them, and the further you are from the information (both geographically and socially) the harder it is to be first in line and more probably you are next to last in line and you gotta pray that you find some bigger fool to sell your bags to.

If anything there are some things on the prediction markets that really give the advantage to the small guy, for example some farmer whose family has been living there for many years could have a big advantage on weather forecasters and those who bet on them. Say they see the wind pick up or a particular cloud formation that gives an expert eye the idea that rain is gonna come whereas forecasters won't see it coming

Re: How Kalshi Infects the News

#24

Post by smelendez » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 3:27 PM UTC

dheera wrote: post #8

baggachipz wrote: post #3

The unprecedented era of gambling on literally everything everywhere is an absolute cancer on society, made completely legal by absolute greed and degeneracy at the highest levels of government. I don't know how we put this genie back in the bottle (amongst many detrimental genies).

I mean, it's instilled into society at every level in the US. If your company offers an FSA, it's asking to make a gamble on how much medical needs you'll have in the next 1 year. The "smart" way to write the tax law would be to just let taxpayers deduct whatever medical expenses they have at tax reporting time. But instead, they want you to make a bet because you're highly likely to either (a) not use all of it and…

I’d put working for tips in here as well.

From the worker’s point of view, it’s adding a gambling element to every transaction, complete with the usual gambler’s folk wisdom about which ones are going to pay out and how to maximize your luck, which I think is part of what makes it popular.

Everyone who’s ever worked for tips has stories of unexpected “wins” and the biggest jackpots are reported on like big lottery wins.

Re: How Kalshi Infects the News

#25

Post by wahnfrieden » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 3:27 PM UTC

hebleb wrote: post #7

baggachipz wrote: post #3

The unprecedented era of gambling on literally everything everywhere is an absolute cancer on society, made completely legal by absolute greed and degeneracy at the highest levels of government. I don't know how we put this genie back in the bottle (amongst many detrimental genies).

It may take awhile, but it ends by voting in political candidates that actually care about combatting greed and corruption again

Only works with fair elections

Re: How Kalshi Infects the News

#26

Post by dieselgate » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 3:31 PM UTC

throwaway27448 wrote: post #14

hebleb wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may take awhile, but it ends by voting in political candidates that actually care about combatting greed and corruption again

Democracy doesn't exactly have a long history of stable states, and the US only been a liberal democracy for about 60 years. In that time we've done very little to hold politicians accountable. It's not clear there is a democratic fix outside of the theoretical realm. Nobody wants to kill the golden goose....

Genuinely curious what the golden goose refers to here?

Re: How Kalshi Infects the News

#27

Post by nradov » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 3:35 PM UTC

tangenter wrote: post #5

baggachipz wrote: post #3

The unprecedented era of gambling on literally everything everywhere is an absolute cancer on society, made completely legal by absolute greed and degeneracy at the highest levels of government. I don't know how we put this genie back in the bottle (amongst many detrimental genies).

I try to run YouTube in librewolf with adblockers stacked to the tits but every so often I have to use Chrome. The volume of gambling ads is repugnant.

It probably depends on the algorithm. I never see gambling ads on YouTube.

Re: How Kalshi Infects the News

#28

Post by hvs » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 3:36 PM UTC

boredatoms wrote: post #13

Pxtl wrote: post #6

It's amazing how naked it is that laws just don't apply to certain people. Kalshi et al are obviously gambling, and yet somehow all the laws about gambling have been politely forgotten by law enforcement.

Same thing happened in the early days of Uber, with taxi licenses

And DraftKings/FanDuel

Re: How Kalshi Infects the News

#29

Post by rescripting » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 3:37 PM UTC

hebleb wrote: post #7

baggachipz wrote: post #3

The unprecedented era of gambling on literally everything everywhere is an absolute cancer on society, made completely legal by absolute greed and degeneracy at the highest levels of government. I don't know how we put this genie back in the bottle (amongst many detrimental genies).

It may take awhile, but it ends by voting in political candidates that actually care about combatting greed and corruption again

There is a market for the gamblification of everything because there is no other widely accessible path for young people to build a future. A college degree is no longer a guaranteed path to a stable, well paying job. Building wealth through real estate is no longer viable.

With no clear options the only visible path to building a modicum of wealth is timing the next big crypto rugpull, hitting a 5 leg parlay, ripping a shiny charizard etc...

We can (and should) try and regulate away this kind of gambling but the underlying problem remains.

Re: How Kalshi Infects the News

#30

Post by saalweachter » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 3:41 PM UTC

miltonlost wrote: post #20

Pxtl wrote: post #6

It's amazing how naked it is that laws just don't apply to certain people. Kalshi et al are obviously gambling, and yet somehow all the laws about gambling have been politely forgotten by law enforcement.

Some states are trying to fight against Kalshi. One of the problems is the President's family has a financial interest in these markets and so the Republican party does their best to say "hey, these are clearly "swaps" and not bets!!!1!" https://www.yogonet.com/international/news/2026/06/29/125136...

I would also like to take a moment to evangelize against the notion that all politicians are crooks.

Some politicians are crooks. They should be voted out, investigated, prosecuted and publicly scorned.

"Everyone cheats" is something cheaters say to (a) feel better about themselves and (b) try to get other people to ignore their cheating when they get caught. Don't believe their lies. Most people don't cheat.

In studies of cooperative behavior, most people choose to cooperate, and the key predictor of whether someone will cooperate is whether they believe other people will choose to cooperate. Cynicism is permission to defect.

Defectors must be punished.