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Sports betting was, if not prohibited, then highly-proscribed for most of my life. You could do it in a few places like OTB, go to Vegas, or deal with an illega

Sports betting was, if not prohibited, then highly-proscribed for most of my life. You could do it in a few places like OTB, go to Vegas, or deal with an illegal bookie. People still gambled, but this made the problem orders of magnitude smaller than it is today. We did not need Sharia law or the guillotine, just an existing system of laws that were generally highly workable. It is not helpful to pretend like we need wild solutions just to achieve results we’ve already achieved and maintained for decades.

dakolli 1mo ago
I really dont think the problem has gotten worse, its just more visible. The previous status quo didnt work either, you just didnt hear as much about it because there weren't commercials. In all reality, the NASDAQ does the entire yearly turnover Klashi and Polymarket combined in a few minutes. It hasnt become as big of a problem as people make it out, but its still a problem. But there's no going back to the status quo with 1990s methods of enforcement. Everyone knows how to use crypto and VPNs, you'd just be pushing people into shady offshore.
- kijashdkujdfhas 1mo ago
  > Everyone knows how to use crypto and VPNs, Not everyone who has placed a bet on Kalshi or Polymarket necessarily knows how to use these tools. > you'd just be pushing people into shady offshore. Hurdles help. Not everyone will know how to jump every hurdle. Not everyone will be willing to put forth the effort. Will some people? Sure. But hurdles do cut down on the overall participation.
- matthewdgreen 1mo ago
  DraftKings alone is estimated to do $6.5bn in revenue in 2026, and the whole US segment is close to $20bn. This is the market that Kalshi et al. are targeting, and these are huge sums of money. You can make sports betting artificially look small by comparing it to the entire equities market (but why?!), however the more reasonable standard of retail product/entertainment companies these are big and rapidly growing businesses.

dakolli 1mo ago

I really dont think the problem has gotten worse, its just more visible. The previous status quo didnt work either, you just didnt hear as much about it because there weren't commercials. In all reality, the NASDAQ does the entire yearly turnover Klashi and Polymarket combined in a few minutes. It hasnt become as big of a problem as people make it out, but its still a problem. But there's no going back to the status quo with 1990s methods of enforcement. Everyone knows how to use crypto and VPNs, you'd just be pushing people into shady offshore.

kijashdkujdfhas 1mo ago
> Everyone knows how to use crypto and VPNs, Not everyone who has placed a bet on Kalshi or Polymarket necessarily knows how to use these tools. > you'd just be pushing people into shady offshore. Hurdles help. Not everyone will know how to jump every hurdle. Not everyone will be willing to put forth the effort. Will some people? Sure. But hurdles do cut down on the overall participation.
matthewdgreen 1mo ago
DraftKings alone is estimated to do $6.5bn in revenue in 2026, and the whole US segment is close to $20bn. This is the market that Kalshi et al. are targeting, and these are huge sums of money. You can make sports betting artificially look small by comparing it to the entire equities market (but why?!), however the more reasonable standard of retail product/entertainment companies these are big and rapidly growing businesses.