• artyom@piefed.social
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    9 hours ago

    studies showing that most bettors lose money.

    How do “most betters lose money”? The way I understand it there’s a winner for every loser, no?

    • LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz
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      4 hours ago

      Bets aren’t 1-1.

      You can have one person with insider information win a seemingly impossible bet against 1000 people taking the other side.

      The person who wins takes in a ton of money, and Polymarket takes a cut.

      Each of those 1000 people all thought they had an easy win, but the only people winning these bets are people who either are the people making the decisions, or who are in the room with the people making those decisions.

    • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      No, take a lottery for instance: many people play, almost no one wins. You can bet on “anything” on Polymarket, like when or where an event is going to take place, so most of the time you’re betting against the market. There’s probably plenty of bets where no one wins at all. Everyone betting could spontaneously agree that Punxsutawney Phil is going to see his shadow (unlikely I know, but if only 5 people are betting, it’s not that crazy), if he doesn’t, no one wins. Except the site.