Spain blocks prediction markets Polymarket, Kalshi over lack of gambling licence

kome

well, it's gambling.

delichon

They require no gambling license to be a stock broker on the Bolsa de Madrid stock exchange.

deaton

Oh so finally someone is calling a spade a spade.

solenoid0937

These - especially Polymarket - should be illegal globally, as they incentivize people with power to manipulate the real world in horribly destructive ways to win a bet. I would not be surprised if people are murdered at some point to reap the payout of some related bet.

josefritzishere

Well, that makes perfect sense. The whole world will eventually do the same. gambling with software is still gambling, just like accounting with software is still accounting.

_diyar

These services run on the blockchain, right? So in effect, there is no blocking them.

throwawa1

When I see people making money on Iran attacks, and murder of heads of state - it shows clearly something is deeply wrong with Polymarket. Its a level worse than Vegas or Indian casinos. A literal ticket to hell. I'm all for banning these evil sites.

everdrive

I don't usually see advertisements, but I was in a position recently to see a real-life television stream, and I was quite surprised to see them run an advertisement for Kalshi. I was pretty surprised that something like this would be advertised to normal people. I'd half expect the next ad to be for a hitman, or for beating your wife, or something. Seems crazy that this is tolerated whatsoever.

seydor

please stop calling them prediction markets. It's not even accurate, you do not buy a prediciton

throwawaypath

Polymarket is a casino. A roulette wheel is not a "market". You can't beat the house.

spwa4

Are they still doing blocks so configuring either Google's DNS or Cloudflare DNS will still unblock the sites?

christkv

Lol it could not possibly be the coincidence that there were bets on ex prime minister Zapatero going to jail before the 30th of June or other meme bets making the rounds in Spain in the last couple of days.

linuxhansl

Good. Just naming things differently does not work in other countries. If it quacks like a duck, swims like a duck, and looks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

satvikpendem

Interesting comments here. I'd rather have prediction markets than casinos or sports betting services, because in the latter, you're playing again the house which can and will ban you for winning too much, while prediction markets are simply market makers taking a fee. Prediction markets are also regulated by the CFTC as they're futures contracts technically.

sd9

It's not cut and dry to differentiate between the act and the wager. One issue is that prediction markets provide financial incentives to perform actions in the real world. For example, if I want a head of state murdered, I can wager lots of money that they won't be murdered. If somebody wants to earn that money, they can simply bet against me and then murder them. It's not an dispassionate wager like betting on roulette, it's a wager that directly influences the real world, at least a bit. Of course you could directly hire an assassin, but that doesn't come with plausible deniability.

afinlayson

Didn't we learn our lesson in SimCity? Crime went up when you added a casino.. but governments gained a little tax revenue... We seem to get the crime (see insider trading) but no tax revenue... Maybe I'm just showing my age...

ethin

Good. Now take the next step and ban them outright.

ddp26

I see a lot of comments like this is the blocking of prediction markets about politics, war, etc. It's important to remember that ~80% of activity Polymarket and ~90% of Kalshi, by volume, are sports. These are effectively sports betting websites with prediction markets on the side.

bastard_op

It ought to be illegal everywhere, the only reason it won't be in the US is the president is on the grift with his kids operating on the boards of them.