Posted by nuwandavek 18 hours ago
People linked to them came up with the "prediction" nonsense to sound modern and technological as a way to dissociate themselves from the life/family destroying gambling of old.
But they are gambling, pure and simple, with no value to society.
If you are making money (i.e. beating the "house") you are by definition laundering information, and profiting off of deniability. Everyone who isn't doing this is the sucker losing money on a betting market.
The funny thing is these companies want to be considered information laundries, because that's what serves the real customer (politicians, celebrities, etc). The people "betting" (i.e. losing) are the product.
???
There's no allowance for skill? Even in financial markets, there's no reason to believe why people who continually beat the market must be insider trading. That's not the same as saying that people should be day trading, but that doesn't mean the reverse is true.
Love or hate PolyMarket, it should be on this list too.
Who are these people?
Number of errors with the polls: 30
Number of errors with Kalshi: 25
Error reduction: 16%
Quoting Scott Alexander [1]> Either over a long time scale, a prediction market will always be at least as good as the best expert, authoritative organization, or other information source. Or you can get rich quick.