Spain Blocks Polymarket and Kalshi (engadget.com) 19
Spain has temporarily blocked Polymarket and Kalshi while it investigates whether the prediction-market platforms are violating gambling laws by operating without a license. Engadget reports: The country's ministry in charge of consumer affairs said it blocked the websites as a precautionary measure pending an official investigation. This investigation will determine if the platforms violate Spain's gambling laws. It's set to complete within the next four months and could mandate that these companies require specific administrative licenses to operate.
waiting for the check (Score:5, Funny)
in other news Polymarket and Kalshi are about to make substanstive donations to spanish politicians.
you can bet or speculate on Polymarket and Kalshi as to how much.
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Spain (as other EU countries) disallows corporate political donations. Reference: Ley Organica 8/2007, de 4 de julio, Articulo 5. Uno. c) https://boe.es/buscar/pdf/2007... [boe.es]
Spain allows donations by persons, even foreign (vide supra, Articulo 7), so the owners (not the company) can make donations to the parties (and not to the politicians). The limits are: 50,000 EUR per donor per year, but donations above 25,000 EUR must be disclosed to the Audit Office / Accountability Office.
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There's plenty of corruption in Spanish politics [wikipedia.org], but it doesn't work by direct open donation. If a direct donation is made, it's in secret in a brown envelope. Alternatively, companies with a viewpoint to push might hire a company with connections to a politician to, say, produce and run their stand in an industry expo at a very generous rate.
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Only in America! You guys are so used to corruption, you have no idea how the world works.
An exceptional country indeed.
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hey thanks for informing your fellow spaniards. because if you don't things like this happen
https://www.theguardian.com/wo... [theguardian.com]
How do they define "gambling?" (Score:2)
Goedel, Escher, and Howe (Score:3)
Since users of these websites are making it their business to make the predictions they've bet on come true, it seems to me that big part of gambling on prediction markets is gambling on how other people gambling on the prediction market is going to affect gambling on the prediction market.
Re:Goedel, Escher, and Howe (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: How do they define "gambling?" (Score:1)
When you buy stock in a company, you have a claim on a portion of a (nominally) productive asset (seize the means of production, comrade!) in addition to some expected gain or loss in value based as much on random variations in perception of value or random exogenous events.
When you bet on which politico more prodigiously panders to palm oil producers, what productive asset serves as the figleaf behind which you claim you are not gambling?
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If that's what it is, lets set rules that when you buy a stock, you have to hold it for at least a quarter. No daytrading or HFT, because that's got nothing to do with investing in production.
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Ultimately the stock market trades pieces of companies. You might be "gambling" with your finances, but if the value of your 1 share of a company drops to zero, you still have 1 share of the company. Not gambling. Prediction markets are much closer to, say, fantasy sports. Educated guessing, but still guessing. If you get it right, your wager pays. Wrong, and the wager is lost.
Saying these markets aren't gambling is weasel-language. It's not even as honest as casinos. Imagine you had to play roulette but in
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Yes. Those are ALL gambling. Even the stock market. Owning stock is fractional ownership of a business; the stock market is gambling on the future value of a stock. Some gambling is legal, taxed and regulated.
Re:How do they define "gambling?" (Score:4, Insightful)
Don Jr. has his fingers in both PMs (Score:4, Insightful)
Polymarket and Kalshi are fun and informative (Score:2)