How Much Do You Wanna Bet…On The News?

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2026

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Gambling has crept into the news, with prediction markets offering betting odds on everything from Taylor Swift’s wedding date to the U.S. acquisition of Greenland. Political reporters now cite betting odds alongside traditional polls, and media companies like CNN and Yahoo have inked deals with popular betting platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket. So what does it mean to put cold hard cash on the outcome of current events? Danny Funt has written about sports betting for The Washington Post and The New Yorker. He joins us to talk about how online gambling is reshaping the news, and his new book: “Everybody Loses.” Guests: Danny Funt, journalist covering sports betting and online gambling, The Washington Post and The New Yorker; author, "Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:04.4	I'm Mina Kim.
1:05.6	Prediction markets, where people can bet money on, well, just about everything, have come to mainstream media.
1:11.8	Last month, CNN announced a deal with prediction market platform Kalshi to report their
1:16.1	betting odds on news events. And here was CNN's chief data analyst Harry Enton this month,
1:22.2	sharing what bettors thought the chances were of Donald Trump buying Greenland.
1:26.6	Yeah, are people in the public taking it seriously?
1:28.8	The people who are putting their money with their mouth is, they're absolutely taking it seriously.
	...

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