Sports betting may be taking over professional sports, but prediction markets are taking over

the entire world. According to the Stanford School of Business, prediction markets are

markets where participants trade contracts whose payoffs are tied to a future event,

thereby yielding prices that can be interpreted as market-aggregated forecasts.

But in layman's terms, all of the states say, hey, this is just gambling.

That's NPR's Bobby Allen. He's been following the explosive growth of prediction markets.

The bets range from who's going to perform at the Super Bowl to what word will Mr. Beast say in his next

video. The two main players in this space, Holly Market and Kalshi, have sent state lawmakers

scrambling to regulate the rapidly growing industry. Because while some participants may be betting

on what word Trump will say at the State of the Union, others have more sinister

aims.

The really, really wild bets on famine, on deaths, on deaths, on the assassination of world leaders,

that's all happening on Polly Market, essentially on an underground, sort of out of the reach

of the U.S. exchange.

The other exchanges that are that are in the U.S. like Kaushi and there's a bunch of others,

those are a little bit more regulated.

Federal law says that betting on death and war is illegal.

But both Pollymarket and Kalsi have come under fire for platforming the possibility.

It is kind of like a tale of two prediction markets.

There's everything happening on Polly Market, which is just totally whack-a-do crazy.

And then there's everything happening on Kalshi, which is more regulated, but not that much more.

When some people bet on death and destruction, where does that leave the rest of us?

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