this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2026
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[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 105 points 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (7 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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Ah. I think I misunderstood your question.

[–] aim_at_me@lemmy.nz 2 points 2 weeks ago

I actually found your explanation helpful! Thanks.

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[–] Augustiner@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago (2 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.

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[–] misterztrite@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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...

[–] sparky@lemmy.federate.cc 74 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

This is where those predictions markets get actually dangerous, not just in terms of financial stuff, but incentivising the committing of crimes in order to win bets. How long will it be before someone commits a violent crime in order to win their polymarket wager?

[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 55 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

There was already a journalist who received death threats, because of their reporting on the war. Someone had made bets on the missiles being fired in Israel, and the journalist reported on it. They were threatened and told to change their story, because a lot of people stood to lose a lot of money on a bet if the report was accurate.

Naturally, the journalist reported on it instead of changing the story.

The TL;DR is that the reporter noted that a missile had struck an open field in Israel. It was a relatively straightforward report, because nobody had been injured and no infrastructure had been damaged. But then the reporter started getting threats. They were trying to get him to change his report, to say that missile fragments had struck the field instead. They had bet that Israel wouldn’t be struck by a missile within a certain timeframe. And if the missile was intercepted, (meaning fragments had struck the field) then the bet wouldn’t count it as a successful strike. So by reporting that a missile had struck that field, the reporter was going to make them lose their bet.

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[–] Tabula_stercore@lemmy.world 22 points 2 weeks ago

Or start a war...

[–] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 7 points 2 weeks ago

One of the soldiers that abducted the president of Venezuela bet on the operation.

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 week ago

How long will it be before someone commits a violent crime in order to win their polymarket wager?

Is that the kind of thing people might bet on?

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 68 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

There are two types of Polymarket users:

  • those who think it's about predicting things

  • those who know it's about taking money from the first group

If you're betting there but don't have a way to influence the results you're just gullible.

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

So what you're saying is I need to make a third group, the one who predicts how the one who takes from the first will influence Polymarket.

You're a genius.

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

Wasnt that all the fuzz around gamespot?

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Gamespot or gamestop? Because if you mean gamestop, yes. If you meant gamespot, I don't know what you mean — you'd have to explain for me.

[–] Siegfried@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago
[–] saimen@feddit.org 1 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

A friend of mine made some profit by having bet on Brexit and Trump in 2016.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 weeks ago

More people should buy "fascism insurance" to anonymously crowdfund anti-fascist action.

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[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 51 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Polymarket is one of the most Black Mirror stuff I've seen til now.

[–] metallic_substance@lemmy.world 28 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah, it's horrifying and deeply sad to marry gambling (which already creates a fair amount of misery for some) and real-world events that cause human misery. Fuck poly market. It should be regulated out of existence

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 weeks ago

That was literally the job of the SEC. This wasn't really a thing under the Biden administration because they applied the Howey test on securities.

[–] Black@lemmy.today 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

People should bet "when is the next Luigi event where the Pedophile / billionaire died or killed".

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

They’ve pulled back from any sort of “death market” because they’re terrified of facing regulation.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 weeks ago

DECENTRALIZED

#blockchain

~PERMISSIONLESS~ innovation

[–] Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

The phrase your looking for is a dead pool. Kek

[–] GarboDog@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

It’s seeming like it’s gone from “WeRe PrEdIcTiNg ThE fUtUrE” to fucking with everyone else’s lives by tampering or doing stupid shit that makes everyone else have a worse day.

[–] Eddbopkins@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

This is just redistribution of wealth, from poor stupid people who do not have inside knowledge of events to richer people who do. The evidence is that navy seal guy who recently got cought making 400k+ on his own actions.

[–] Gsus4@mander.xyz 7 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, markets are inequality machines, betting is just the extreme case.

[–] fox2263@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The comments on that article make me worry

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

Truth Machine doing its work for the benefit of humanity

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