Comment Text:
Characterizing prediction markets like PredictIt as "gaming" is, at best, disingenuous.
These markets provide highly valuable information on where public sentiment is heading on critical issues relevant to the public at large, academics, investors, and other groups.
In my view, no one is using these marketplaces to gamble or game in any meaningful sense of these terms.
Prediction markets would be a very boring and very limited way to "game" and there are many, many more stimulating and engaging options like poker, sports betting, etc. The action of prediction market places is slow and the amounts of money that can be staked and won is trivial - in short, prediction markets would make for the most boring casino conceivable.
The use of money in prediction markets is merely an incidental aspect that is used to increase the accuracy of predictions. By making people "put their money where their mouth is", the psychology behind their predictions is changed, leading to more measured and genuinely predictions. I believe this impact is well documented in the academic literature and not controversial in any way.
