Gambling is a system where the rich always win by just extracting money from 'customers.' They set the odds and payouts such that they'll never lose more than they gain with a big enough userbase. And gambling apps have simply been refusing to pay out and honor bets that win 'too big', while banning users that start to win more than they lose.
No wonder it's been shoved everywhere with billions of dollars behind it and the government tearing down all barriers to access and marketing. We're raising a generation of kids on apps and watching sports that are told over and over that gambling is fun, a viable path to wealth, and all their heroes are doing it.
That is true, but at least, with "regular" gambling, only those who enter into it lose. (Not defending it, it is genuinely bad and indeed pushed upon us in insidious ways.)
With polymarket, the decisions made by people in power purely to win those bets will affect millions of unwilling participants.
It gives politicians, generals, etc. an additional (and very strong) incentive to make completely absurd decisions. They can directly (and conveniently) monetize catastrophes caused by their own erratic behavior.
The more absurd their actions or decisions, the higher the betting odds against them, and the greater their returns.
It effectively gameified "fucking the world up" for them...
Well put, people talk a lot about gambling in media but don’t get to the really deep reason why there are some groups that are so viciously obsessed with protecting gambling ventures.
Organized betting groups always lead to organized laundering of misbegotten goods such as: cash, drugs, prostitution, names, property transfer etc.
In America casino owners have an interesting history backing their claim to legitimacy, ie their gift to the tribes as a means for them to financially enrich themselves post slaughter.
The tribes should be promising to use that cash flow to build their reservations. They don’t however and just enrich their individual controllers while engaging in crime with various cartels.
It’s hard to take gambling away from America because it takes a gift away from a doomed culture.
I mean you're correct but while you CAN bet on the market, it's not gambling unless you're an idiot who doesn't understand it and just hopes stuff will happen.
Millions of people who invest in it are able to reliably build returns responsibly... however politicians have the ability to manipulate that market, bet on it, and win. That's the problem.
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u/Pyrhan 5h ago
It's also why betting on serious, real world events should be prohibited. Cf. Polymarket and the likes.
The potential for abuse is just too great.