It's Friday, March 13, 2006. I'm Albert Moller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and

event from a Christian worldview. Well, we've been talking a lot about the vast expansion in

gambling, sometimes referred to as legalized gaming. It has to do, of course, with any kind of

system in which you are making a wager, you're placing a bet against some kinds of odds, and, of course,

there are winners and losers. And, of course, one of the big moral lessons here is that when you

have something like a casino or any kind of organized gambling effort, the house always wins. Otherwise, it ceases to be.

All right. We've also talked about two giant dimensions of this that ought to have the attention

of all Christians. And the first dimension is the radical expansion of gambling into

dimensions that aren't legally defined as gambling yet.

And the prediction markets are the biggest thing here.

So they're treated as a financial market, but they are gambling markets largely on future events.

So this works in that you can place a wager, and I'll just call it it a bet on future events. The big platforms are

Kalshi and Polly Market. And these events can range from will this actress wear this color

at the Oscars, the Academy Awards ceremony, right down to will Iran strike? I'm not going to name

a country here, but will this event take place?

And will this happen?

And of course, there are moral complexities here.

They're just massive.

And speaking of warfare, there are some very troubling prediction market wagers that were made

with people who well might have had inside

information about, for example, the combined American and Israeli military action against Iran.

And honestly, there's also the danger that people will make decisions based upon the outcomes

...