[philipallstar]

Well, you are privately allowed to bet on whatever you like with another individual. That is indeed legally fine, though potentially distasteful.

Polymarket is facilitating bets between people, not bets with the house. Gambling and insurance are both bets with the house.

[kube-system]

> Well, you are privately allowed to bet on whatever you like with another individual.

What jurisdiction are we painting with that broad brush? This is far from universally true, even in the US.

[bit-anarchist]

Could you provide an example?

[wsng]

In German law, any contract, including bets, is void if it is “sittenwidrig”. For example, if your wager in a bet is to become one’ slave in case you lose, this bet is void.

[bit-anarchist]

I suppose they never specified the wager. But, given the topic is prediction markets and the topics of the bets, I thought it was implied that the wagers would be exclusively in money. With that in mind, is there any example of a law against specific topics being betted on?

[jubilanti]

Nope. "We're just an intermediary between people" is a 100+ year old yarn that casinos and bookies have been trying to spin. If you're presenting a point of entry to a betting line and taking a cut, congrats, you're the house. Doesn't matter if you adjust the betting line manually based on intuition or algorithmically based on betting volume. Sometimes it doesn't get enforced because of corruption, but if this was the case, then why aren't there tons of independent unregulated poker casinos where players just play against each other? If you facilitate and take a cut, you're the house.

[somenameforme]

Polymarket doesn't take a cut. Their profit comes in transaction fees.

[munk-a]

The mob boss doesn't charge me interest on my loan - he just really likes receiving expensive gifts from me.

[FireBeyond]

"We don't take a cut of your bet, we just charge you a transaction fee on your bet" is reaching a bit.

[somenameforme]

My phrasing was poor, but they do so generally in a very good faith fashion. It's not just a wink wink rake type thing. For instance there are no fees at all on the most popular and high-volume markets - geopolitics and world events. And not only are there are no fees even on smaller markets for market 'makers' - people who put up an offer, but they provide a percentage of all fees collected from market 'takers' back to the makers, as a means of encouraging liquidity.

[CPLX]

What the hell are you talking about? You are absolutely not allowed to bet on whatever you'd like with another individual. Depending on what you're betting on (for example, the price of a stock or the throw of a card), it falls under varying different regimes. This is highly regulated and has been for most of the whole of human history.

Yes, there are de minimis exceptions. Your office NCAA pool, for example, is often legal, but it has nothing to do with what we're talking about and is also irrelevant to a business facilitating it via 18 U.S.C. § 1955.

[anthk]

In Spain in elderly caring homes there was a tradition to bet on Bingo matches for simbolic prices (barely one or two euros, enough for a coffee and that's it). It was legalized on paper recently, but technically everyone turned a blind eye.

https://russpain.com/en/news-3/authorities-consider-legalizi...

>Rarely exceed 25 euros.

Maybe in Christmas, because the weekly play was just about low prizes.

[FireBeyond]

It was, believe it still is, somewhat similar in Australia, where the game Two Up (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-up), which was a wartime favorite among soldiers, was implicitly or allowed on Anzac Day despite being gambling.

[josefritzishere]

That "facilitating" argument didn't work out for Silk Road.

[philipallstar]

Because what the Silk Road did was illegal whether in person or not.

[kube-system]

What Polymarket and Kalshi are doing is also illegal in many places.

[epolanski]

To me this is technicality.

A bet is a bet, whether it's against the house or other people it's a bet.

[usrusr]

Can you name the individuals you are betting with on Polymarket? Can they name you?

[FireBeyond]

Gannon Ken Van Dyke has entered the chat.