this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2026
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[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 105 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Honestly, that's awesome and should be the norm. If these fucking assholes are going to let people bet on random shit, they deserve to have random shit bite them in the ass. If they are letting people bet on EASILY gamed events, then they need to expect things to be gamed.

[–] Gsus4@mander.xyz 55 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Yeah, but official public records are important too, they shouldn't be littered with vandalism, just because these guys have no notion of permanent reality.

[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 32 points 1 week ago

Your comment made me actually read the story instead of just the headline.

If it was just a thermometer in someone’s back yard, then I’d agree with @dogslayeggs. You’re right, though: it’s not okay to mess with official public records. It may be funny, and a good way to make a few bucks (or euros, or francs, or whatever), but it’s not okay.

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I say that gaming this system justifies inconsequential alternation of public records. Being prudish about doing anything slightly controversial while the other side blatantly ignores all laws and laughs in our faces is why they are winning.

[–] athatet@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I would agree with you except the people who did this aren’t on any side. They are just fucking up temp data to make money. Why is that justified?

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 1 points 1 week ago

I think people that did this are not millionaires and are not in power. Probably just some clever airport workers. IMHO, gaming exploitative system to make a living is justified. It someone abused their power to get even richer than it's not justified.

[–] JustTesting@lemmy.hogru.ch 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

How does calling the bets on those platforms actually work? Is it employees that need to decide which outcome happened? And can anyone make a bet? If so, how do they keep up with all the bets and even just knowing that a bet is ready to be called?

[edit]
ok, i decided to research this myself (so much for the wisdom of crowds).

some platforms have an admin pick what option was the outcome.

And some have a board of traders that vote on what the outcome was(maybe with votes weighted by how many shares of some token they own…)

so yeah, some admin on the platform or a few users are the ultimate arbitrer of truth, which sounds stupid to me. Especially since any ambiguity of the wording of the bet is up to them to figure out.

this page had nice examples of kalshi and polymarket resolution 'failing'. Was also not surprised that polymarket uses crypto for resolution, of course there's crypto involved in this somehow… it really fits the online gambling theme

[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

I have no idea. The whole idea seems so open to manipulation/corruption that I'm shocked that the businesses are working as well as they are.

[–] Gsus4@mander.xyz 7 points 1 week ago

I've seen use of wikipedia page update as official bet trigger...the destructive potential is huge, they infect what matters with their gambling eg investment banking infecting commercial banking.

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

When you start, there are no shares to buy or sell. For a dollar, the market will sell you a "yes" and a "no" share. When the bet matures, one of those shares will be worth a dollar, and the other will be worth nothing. If you keep both shares, you'll get your dollar back, nothing more, nothing less.

You think the bet will resolve to "yes", so you want to sell off your "no" shares. You try to sell them at $0.50, nobody buys. You lower your price to $0.30, and they sell. Now you have $0.30 and a "yes" share that might be worth a dollar in the future.

You see someone is offering to buy "yes" shares for $0.80. If you sell your "yes" share, you'll end up with $1.10 total.

Suppose after a trading back and forth all day, you find yourself with a "yes" share that you've paid $0.40 for. You have a "no" share that you've paid $0.30 for. At any time, you can join those two shares together and sell them back to the market for $1.

[–] JustTesting@lemmy.hogru.ch 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

But why would anyone buy shares after an event resolved? You'd expect liquidity to dry up at that point. So i can't imagine that this is how it's ultimately resolved and you get paid out.

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Where did I say anyone was buying up shares after the event resolved?

When the event resolves, the platform pays out $1 for each share on the winning side. Shares on the losing side are worthless.

If you have a "yes" and a "no" share, you can join them together and sell them to the platform for $1, before the event resolves. You don't have to wait for the event; you can sell them back at any time.

[–] JustTesting@lemmy.hogru.ch 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yes but my whole question was about how a bet resolves, who decides it is resolved and who decides what the true outcome was. So i assumed your answer was to that question, which it didn't seem to answer.

See the edit in my original post.

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ah. I think I misunderstood your question.

[–] aim_at_me@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 week ago

I actually found your explanation helpful! Thanks.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago

The odds and all of the bets are calculated and tracked using block chain I think.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Usually the outcome is determined by a consensus of reliable news reporting. In this case, it seems like they were using a local weather station.

[–] JustTesting@lemmy.hogru.ch 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

But the news papers don't go and klick a button in e.g. kalshi. Someone/something has to collect the news sources and change the state of the bet to 'resolved'. Either a human arbitrator, or some consensus vote by users or something like that? And that would already be very problematic, like what's to stop the arbitrator from deciding in their friends favor?

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 week ago

Humans on their staff. Hopefully, and not AI. And hopefully they have multiple people involved in resolving a bet to avoid that situation (but even if it happened, the people with money on it would absolutely riot, because they are watching almost all of them).

[–] Augustiner@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

I get where you’re coming from, but the only ones that lose here are the suckers that think this is a fair game.

Predictionmarkets don’t work like a casino or sports betting. They are not the classic „house“ that you bet against in a casino, it’s more like a broker selling you futures on commodities. They earn their money via transaction fees for facilitating bets between people. So they win, no matter if the wager is rigged or not. This means that they probably don’t really care about it, or any other rigged bets at all. I would guess they might even like it, because every time there is a big article about some rigged bet like this, they get free press exposure.

Edited for clarity

[–] MalReynolds@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago

Hmfh, I'd put it down to some sort of money laundering scheme or political handout to supporters type thing, because there's no way the house is winning when you can't make reliable odds (short of a couple of insurance companies worth of actuaries) but now it makes a bit of sense, thanks.

Of course it's probably both of those things, and I'm wondering where they get all the people betting against Trump stupidity, but the business plan is now understandable.

[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've never looked into them. You aren't betting against the house, you are betting against other people?

[–] Augustiner@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, that’s the gist.

Watch this or that if you are interested to learn about the risks and financial fundamentals behind it all.

[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Shit, betting against other people sounds even MORE ripe for rigging results than betting against the house. That's bonkers. Thanks for the info.

[–] Augustiner@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Wait until you hear that Trumps son (idk which of the shit gremlins) is working in an advisory role for Kalshi and Polimarket at the same time, making sure they will not get any issues with the government. It’s all fucked to hell.

[–] misterztrite@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

To be fair that is how the house in sports betting tries to work. They adjust the odds, the payouts, the spread, or whatever they else need to do to make money irrespective of the result of the game. The house just takes their cut.

[–] Augustiner@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The result is similar, but a casino will definitely care if you keep winning, because then their profit margins go down. If you keep winning at Roulette or always bet on the right horse the house will cut you off. Prediction markets don’t care. They make the same money wether you lose or win all of your bets, cause your winnings don’t come out of the pot that the house manages, they come directly out of the pocket of the people who took you up on your bet. At least that’s what they say…

There are rumors that polymarket etc also act like the house sometimes and take bets that no one wants to take. But atm I think those are not confirmed.

It’s not against the rules, lfg

[–] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Someone should place big bets on the destruction of Polymarket.

Place big bets AGAINST the destruction of Polymarket, to be exact.

But then again, any long-term bet on Polymarket is at least partially a bet against short-term destruction of Polymarket so...