Stossel shares some entertaining outrage, but the WSJ coverage leads with a reference to Hollywood that’s closer to the mark. Intrade must have been terribly threatening to the practice of picking hit movies. Even a stinker makes some cash, but not if a market warns everyone beforehand.
Government Crushes Innovative Online Prediction Market
Today, Americans were told that they must close their Intrade.com accounts. That happened because the federal government agency known as the “Commodity Futures Trading Commission” (CFTC) today sued the prediction market, where people from all over the world bet about things like who will win elections.
Intrade decided all its U.S. customers must now close their accounts and withdraw their money from the site.
UPDATE 12/07: I wanted to note that probably first read about the Hollywood angle on the Overcoming Bias post Zitzewitz The Wise. I just couldn’t find that link when I wrote this post.
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