My Instagram ads are just filled with Polymarket, Kalshi, brand name casinos... it's endless. It's all low level influencers talking about how much money they're making, how you can bet (and yes, it is betting) any time you have 30 seconds to spare, how easy it makes it all.<p>I feel like there's been a growing, dark underbelly of gambling addiction since it was legalized online. And it's going to be difficult to walk it back.<p>(the ones that <i>truly</i> blow my mind are the promo ads for people gambling on buying mystery collectible cards then virtually "ripping" the pack open. Grown adult men paying hundreds of dollars! Absolutely wild.)
Gambling and betting always seem target explotation of people who aren't well off already. Like lottery tickets I worry that Polymarket, Kalshi and the like are ways to further destroy the marginal in an apathetic if not malign political environment. It doesn't seem like anyone is doing anything about it.
I have a theory that the prevalence of gambling, trading, and investing is a natural response to wealth inequality and automation. Wealth has always correlated with risk (e.g. business ownership) but as the prospects for wealth diminish, the amount of risk people are willing (forced?) to take on grows.<p>An optimistic view could be that in a future where AI drives most of GDP and UBI covers basic needs, well-regulated betting marketplaces could provide an opportunity for people to get ahead (or at least do something) for example by developing algorithms and AIs that do rigorous backtesting and apply institutional-grade risk management strategies.<p>The pessimistic view is that these marketplaces are just another cause of wealth inequality, they will always extract more wealth than they generate, and there is no place for them in a balanced, healthy economy.
> I have a theory that the prevalence of gambling, trading, and investing is a natural response to wealth inequality and automation. Wealth has always correlated with risk (e.g. business ownership) but as the prospects for wealth diminish, the amount of risk people are willing (forced?) to take on grows.<p>There was a NY Times article a while back that talked about why Gen Z is so into gambling: they feel the system is so rigged against them that traditional strategies to get safety and security (e.g. get a good job, save, buy a house, etc.) don't work anymore. So they either give up (and focus on short-term consumption) or throw their money at long shots like gambling and crypto, hoping for a jackpot.<p>> The pessimistic view is that these marketplaces are just another cause of wealth inequality, they will always extract more wealth than they generate, and there is no place for them in a balanced, healthy economy.<p>That is the truth. They don't generate any wealth, they exist to take a cut on people transferring money unproductively.
A number of state governments are working hard to do something about it. The reason it <i>seems</i> like no action is being taken is that they've bribed the federal government to take their side.
Meanwhile these degenerate folk play these things irresponsibly, become public charges, and I have to pay the brunt of it as a taxpayer who isn't going to get any of my money back in the form of things that benefit me. Social Security will be insolvent, I still don't have universal healthcare or functional public transportation, and the cost of everything is going up while I'm getting taxed to death.<p>The only actual solution I've found is to participate in the "system" itself and actually get my money back from the "system". I have better math skills than 99.9% of people on the platforms, so I'm able to profit significantly by quant trading on it.<p>I wish I didn't have to do this. I'd love to be rich just by working and getting to actually keep the money I make from working. Inflation and taxes could be less if everyone was smart with their money. But my money is stolen, used to support this system, so I just fish it back by playing the house :/
Pack ripping was huge during COVID. It is always more economical in the long run to buy singles than to rip packs. Generally speaking, the primary purpose of mystery boxes is to dump slow-moving inventory.
>My Instagram ads<p>That's your one-two punch right there. On Instagram, and viewing ads. Best thing to do is avoid both.
I knew someone was going to post this. Thank you for the startling and brand new to me revelation that both Instagram and advertising are Not Good.
I didn't say it to be rude to you, so I apologize if that's how I came off. I think a lot of these problems don't have real, practical technological or policy solutions. (those solutions could exist in principle, but they're never going to work.) I think all we can do is walk away from these platforms.
Now you know that you were the problem all along!
I know several organizations who have surrendered all online presence to social media, primarily instagram. I cannot find their events anywhere else. My dream is to have a fake account that scrapes all accounts I care about and sends just the highlights to me. I am sure that Meta spends an inordinate amount of time preventing this
You must have clicked some at some point, all I get when I have ads on is outdoors gear because I've clicked a few of those ads in the past and my "suggestions" are related to that category.
Especially difficult to walkback since bribes are basically legal now because once an industry establishes itself it starts buying off politicians.
> My Instagram ads are just filled with Polymarket, Kalshi, brand name casinos... it's endless.<p>At least you get actual ads, not a feed full of Twitter and 4chan screenshots overlaid with SKARS AI slop music and wrapped at the top and bottom by a casino ad.
> (the ones that truly blow my mind are the promo ads for people gambling on buying mystery collectible cards then virtually "ripping" the pack open. Grown adult men paying hundreds of dollars! Absolutely wild.)<p>Sounds just like a lot of NFTs.
you can work on your timeline and who you follow, maybe use a vpn, and make sure meta doesn't really know who you are. my timeline has none of that shit.
Lesser known is that Polymarket’s Twitter accounts themselves are actually rebranded personal accounts from (often cancelled) esports personalities. People who have given up their brand or their career sold their accounts to Polymarket, who rebranded them.<p>You can check by looking up tweets from their account IDs. I think it’s possible they may have even left up the old tweets if you scroll back far enough.
I have an old reddit account with a lot of karma. I once got an offer for it, I believe around $2,000. Maybe that offer was a scam, but people seem to be contacted to buy their accounts. Its incredible to me how much this is being done by deep pocketed marketers, and I imagine botnet operators working for heaven knows who. This something not talked about much but buying up and re-branding accounts with established viewership or high-karma happens a lot.<p>I have seen it politically and part of shady marking. I read the girlsgamer sub on reddit and I remember a big influx of "I'm a woman and I support (current game with sexist elements)." Back then you could see everyone's post and comment history. You could see these accounts went quiet a year or two or three ago and their history was very male coded, then came back on-line recently pushing culture-war narratives and describing themselves very differently than their original posts and comments.<p>I also saw the same thing with some suspicious right-wing posts on some political subs I'm on. Just an old account that had little to no political posting history suddenly coming alive and posting non-stop politics.<p>I find it interesting and suspicious reddit only started allowing hidden profiles after this and when people started pointing this out.<p>I think its safe to say all social media is badly compromised and gamed by monied interests.
> I feel fine participating because Polymarket has no house edge or VIG<p>> Prediction markets are PVP thats the way i look at it<p>This is true but people should at least be informed that the overwhelming majority of trading volume is HFT firms with faster access to data and the prediction markets than you. These firms pay the prediction markets for that access, and the losses that happen on prediction markets flow to these few large HFT shops.
Whatever other analysis makes sense here, can you imagine a less satisfying job? I think cleaning up elephant dung would give me more career satisfaction than this.
For anyone wondering what "wumao" is: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party</a>:<p>> The 50 Cent Party, also known as the 50 Cent Army or wumao (/ˈwuːmaʊ/; from Chinese: 五毛; lit. 'five dimes'), are Chinese government employees posting online comments to divert public attention or promote positive sentiment.<p>> ...<p>> The name "50 Cent Party" is derived from claims that government hired commentators are reportedly paid RMB¥0.50 (5 jiao) for every post in order to shape public opinion in ways favorable towards Chinese Communist Party (CCP) policies.[1][5][6]<p>So basically paid shills.
Totally not gambling though
I will still contend putting gambling apps in people's pockets is one of the obviously dumb ideas our society has let happen.
It’s fun to think of showing this title to somebody in the year 2000 and telling them that it’s actually completely intelligible
This is definitely slimy, but it's pretty much bog-standard slimy marketing practice these days, no? Like these is framed as though it's a big expose, but isn't it common knowledge that tons of companies do this kind of thing?
They do this on Reddit as well. Some accounts post about news and events with an image attached, and just so happen to include a reference to Polymarket somewhere in the image every time, even when it makes no sense.
Well well well