Hear Me Out: Election Betting Should Be Legal

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Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2024

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: placing bets. Betting on the results of elections is illegal in the United States – though that hasn’t stopped sportsbooks overseas from cashing in. And that doesn’t mean that Americans haven’t placed bets on election results in the U.S., either; that’s a tradition that dates back centuries. There’s a push now to make elections betting legal on American soil — and for American companies to run online casinos. Futures markets are complicated, and it might feel gross, or even dangerous, to gamble on democracy… but of all the types of gambling we do allow, what if this one is actually the biggest good to society? Eric Zitzewitz of Dartmouth joins us to bet on the value of election betting. If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected] Podcast production by Maura Currie. Want more Hear Me Out? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/hearmeoutplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Hear Me Out. I'm Celeste Hedley. A company called Kalshi, not Kashi, like the
0:06.7	cereal, is currently suing the federal government because the company wants to open an online casino for gambling on presidential elections.
0:15.8	Now, historians will tell you that placing bets on election results is not new.
0:20.9	Americans have been doing that since we started voting. By one estimate, New Yorkers
0:25.5	betting on the 1916 presidential election spent more than $280 million in today's money.
0:33.5	Now it's illegal to place bets on elections technically,
0:36.2	and betting on the outcome of future events
0:38.5	is a pretty complicated issue.
0:40.2	But if any gambling is going to be legal, why not gambling on elections?
0:45.0	There isn't a lot of things that bring a consensus to bear.
0:50.0	Markets do that. I mean, anybody can enter a market anybody can trade.
0:54.3	Markets automatically affect the average opinion at least weighted by people's
0:59.2	willingness to put their money where their mouth is.
1:01.2	Eric Zitzowitz of Dartmouth joins Hear Me Out in just a moment.
1:05.1	Stay with us. Hey Slate Lestiners, I'm Christina Kauterucci,
1:15.0	the host of Sloburn, Gays Against Briggs.
1:18.0	I want to tell you about a special event we're doing
1:20.0	at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on June 13th.
1:24.0	To celebrate the new season of Sloburn and Pride Month, we'll be hosting an exclusive
1:28.6	taping of the show with special guests including Eric Marcus, the host of Making Gay History.
1:34.2	We'll dive deeper into this season and talk about the lasting impact of the Briggs Initiative
1:38.8	and the continued fight over LGBTQ rights and schools.
	...

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