Polymarket and the rise of political betting

Front Burner

Got some money burning a hole in your pocket? You could go online and place a bet about whether or not Canada will become the U.S.’s 51st state before July, whether or not there will be an election before the New Year, or whether the U.S. will ban TikTok before May 2025. And you could do it all on a website called Polymarket.

Polymarket is a “prediction market” that allows users to spend crypto to place bets on the likelihood of life events. The site is not without controversy.

Polymarket is illegal to use in the US, researchers say there’s rampant “wash trading” taking place on the platform, and in November the FBI raided Polymarket CEO, Shayne Coplan’s New York apartment.

Today we speak with New York Times reporter David Yaffe-Bellany about whether Polymarket is a new more accurate way of polling, or just another gambling site.

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