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New York Times and The Athletic workers demand company scrap Kalshi deal

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Re: New York Times and The Athletic workers demand company scrap Kalshi deal

#131

Post by orangecat »

jceg wrote: post #109

Most of the top level comments support scrapping the deal, most of them on the basis that "sports gambling is a cancer." A cancer for whom? I want to take the opposite position: let people do whatever they want, as long as they bear the consequences of their decisions instead of socializing the risk. You don't like betting or gambling? Great, then don't do it. But forcing your preferences on others is not the way.

As a practical matter when someone gambles away their life savings we aren't going to let them starve in the streets, we're going to give them public assistance.

Despite my libertarian leanings I have to acknowledge that sports betting is a disaster for people with low impulse control, and while in theory prediction markets are useful for aggregating knowledge, in reality they've been taken over by degenerate gamblers and fraudsters.

Re: New York Times and The Athletic workers demand company scrap Kalshi deal

#132

Post by dylan604 »

c-linkage wrote: post #121
jceg wrote: post #109

Most of the top level comments support scrapping the deal, most of them on the basis that "sports gambling is a cancer." A cancer for whom? I want to take the opposite position: let people do whatever they want, as long as they bear the consequences of their decisions instead of socializing the risk. You don't like betting or gambling? Great, then don't do it. But forcing your preferences on others is not the way.

What happens when a husband decides to risk the mortgage payment on a sports bet and loses? Now the wife and kids are evicted. Or maybe he lives alone and is now homeless. But now we have a man living out of his car, or worse, homeless and begging on the corner. The problem with allowing people to do whatever they want is that risks are often socialized.

How does this happen with an online app? I understand how it happens when you place a bet with the local bookie.

Re: New York Times and The Athletic workers demand company scrap Kalshi deal

#133

Post by burningChrome »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #37
cdrnsf wrote: post #34

Sports gambling is a cancer, as are prediction markets. None of it should've been legalized and all of it should be banned.

At a minimum, if it was going to be legal why could they not have restricted the advertising like we do with tobacco ads? At this point the sports broadcasts themselves are advertisements.

Its not just the broadcasts are advertisements. Its completely engrained in every professional sports league now. They now all have some kind of multi-year contracts with casino's, betting platforms and prediction markets. This is way beyond advertising now. Our local sports talk show has an hour long show that precedes the pre-game that is 100% all about NFL gambling for Sunday's games.

Not only are you seeing the advertisements for these platforms and their betting apps, you're having a coordinated focus on actively pushing it in a myriad of other ways as well.

Re: New York Times and The Athletic workers demand company scrap Kalshi deal

#137

Post by compiler-guy »

jceg wrote: post #109

Most of the top level comments support scrapping the deal, most of them on the basis that "sports gambling is a cancer." A cancer for whom? I want to take the opposite position: let people do whatever they want, as long as they bear the consequences of their decisions instead of socializing the risk. You don't like betting or gambling? Great, then don't do it. But forcing your preferences on others is not the way.

Sports betting has externalities that are hard to push back into the original bettor and the bookie. Solving those externalities involves regulation in some form, whether by regulation or heavy taxes.

Re: New York Times and The Athletic workers demand company scrap Kalshi deal

#138

Post by giwook »

logicchains wrote: post #135
cdrnsf wrote: post #34

Sports gambling is a cancer, as are prediction markets. None of it should've been legalized and all of it should be banned.

[flagged]

Where is that "less than 1%" figure coming from or did you just pull that out from you-know-where?

And alcohol has always been highly accessible. I have 5 stores within a 5 minute walk of me that I can get it from, and that's not to mention all of the restaurants and bars within that same radius.

Addiction is addiction. Alcohol is one object of that addiction. Sports betting can be another. Porn, food, drugs, etc.

What's to say sports betting addiction won't become as severe as alcohol now that it's becoming more accessible to the public?

Re: New York Times and The Athletic workers demand company scrap Kalshi deal

#139

Post by yipinwong »

This is where stupid unions rubs me the wrong way.

Unions are for improving worker conditions such as getting the right pay, and right working environment.

They want to "run" the company themselves. Some might argue they are for keeping their current working env without Kalshi.

They are not the ones who has to bear the financial responsibilities of the company. They can shove it and just move on.

Re: New York Times and The Athletic workers demand company scrap Kalshi deal

#140

Post by logicchains »

amelius wrote: post #120
orangecat wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, and how does banning short-term trading make the world more fair?

For one thing because now people who own high-speed low-latency connections to stock markets have no advantage over "normal" people who actually do meaningful work, like being a policeman or nurse.

>people who actually do meaningful work, like being a policeman

Making a sudden event that happened on the other side of the world reflect in the local market price at almost the speed of light is far more meaningful work than going around shooting dark-skinned people.

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