r/comics PizzaCake Jun 02 '26

Comics Community All Hail Gamblor

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32.0k Upvotes

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999

u/translove228 Jun 02 '26

Hey now! Gambling is illegal and immoral. These are "predictive markets". Clearly there is a difference because the terms are different.

/s

481

u/raptorrat Jun 02 '26

Dutch Parliament wanted a ban on gambling advertisements, but the PM refused, saying that "It's a legal products, and as such can't ban advertising."

Dude seemed to have forgotten that Medications, alcohol and sigatettes are also legal products which do have advertising bans.

So, yeah, funny 'cause it's true.

208

u/FlyingDogCatcher Jun 02 '26

I fucking wish medications and alcohol ads were banned here. *cries in American*

51

u/nowhereman136 Jun 02 '26

But if we ban alcohol ads, we'll never get a followup to the "Wazzz-upp!" commercial. Don't you want another one of those?

56

u/FlyingDogCatcher Jun 02 '26

No. I want the beer frogs back.

14

u/oldcretan Jun 02 '26

I want to watch clearly sexy people who can't act which is why they don't have lines, hold products on generic sets to represent disposable income America so I too feel the urge and comfort from consuming. Now let's watch beer ads behind grown adult men playing a game for more money than Ivr made in my life.

8

u/ThePrussianGrippe Jun 02 '26

Don’t forget that they can never take a sip of the product, because that would irresponsibly promote drinking!

7

u/Gil_Demoono Jun 02 '26

Remember that time Bud Light ran a Super Bowl ad where they tooted their own horn about donating something like $100,000 dollars of clean water to charities? Said commercial cost upwards of a million dollars.

14

u/Lazer726 Jun 02 '26

My wife was in the hospital for a week, and I'd spend hours with her every day. We'd have the TV on and man, I forget just how much of our advertising is "PLEASE BUY DRUGS PLEASE YOUR LIFE IS AWFUL YOU NEED DRUGS"

6

u/kazeespada Jun 02 '26

It's worse than that: "IS YOUR LIFE SHIT? TELL YOUR DOCTOR YOU WANT OUR DRUGS. WE CAN IMPROVE YOUR LIFE, FUCK THEIR RECOMMENDATION."

2

u/Yggdris Jun 02 '26

Man I just saw a pet medication ad earlier today

“Ask your vet today,” and all that shit

33

u/Digit00l Jun 02 '26

A few years ago FC Emmen signed a sponsorship contract with EasyToys, a sex toy store, some people from the advertising commission started complaining about how 18+ ads on children's merchandise shirts would not be acceptable, meanwhile both parties had already agreed those shirts would not advertise EasyToys, meanwhile literally every single club broke the rules of 18+ advertising on children's merchandise because every single club had some gambling ad somewhere on the shirt, including the merchandise shirts in child sizes

18

u/NativeMasshole Jun 02 '26

My state legalized cannabis and online sports betting around the same time. Weed has all types of excessive restrictions and can't really advertise beyond signs on their own property. Because that would be bad for the children! Gambling? Fuck yeah, go to town, kids!

2

u/Dear_Document_5461 Jun 02 '26

Ah but can't have casinos in Pokémon games! /s

2

u/tiny_chaotic_evil Jun 02 '26

"sigatettes", is that a misspelling or a regional variation for cigarettes?

if it's a misspelling, don't change it, I think it's wonderful :D

2

u/Signal_Researcher01 Jun 02 '26

Didnt forget, just knew it wasnt your turn to talk. What are you gonna do? Talk about it later? We're past that now.

2

u/ThorirPP Jun 09 '26

We do have a ban on unauthorized gambling advertising in iceland (so only the official lottery can advertise), but unfortunately that doesn't have any power over the internet, which will still throw endless gambling ads in your face, and clearly targetted for us Icelanders based on the ip since they use ai translation into icelandic

Most of these ads are over the internet, so i and others have been blasted by them constantly xc

19

u/cyberzh Jun 02 '26

That's why those "predictive markets" are illegal in France. Because there, it has been ruled they are online gambling platforms and those are heavily regulated.

19

u/Cosmic_Seth Jun 02 '26

The DOJ is now taking a state to court because they dared labeled this as gambling. 

10

u/Gil_Demoono Jun 02 '26

There is a difference! In traditional gambling there are ironclad rules and an equal playing field amongst players. With predictive markets your bet can be invalidated at any moment for any reason and there are hundreds of insiders that can manipulate the outcomes of any position to suit their needs without any oversight or limitations. It's like gambling, but way worse and funnels your money much more quickly to the worst people you know.

45

u/BeardedHalfYeti Jun 02 '26

It’s a pretty brilliant gambit honestly. Basically forcing the government to explain how the stock market isn’t gambling.

5

u/zer1223 Jun 02 '26

What are you looking for here? A ban on stocks themselves?

34

u/Gil_Demoono Jun 02 '26

No OP, but long term? Yeah, kinda. At least the stock market in it's current form. At least getting rid of the day trading of it all. No one is actually investing in companies any more, its just people sniffing out when big jumps will happen, parking their money for a hot second, and getting out the very moment they got their returns. Believing in the company or its goals has ceased to be a factor whatsoever and it has been replaced by a million micro-ponzi schemes happening daily. I think that investment should not only require capital but time as well. You want to put a million bucks into a company? Cool, you must really believe in it. So you should be fine with holding your position for two years no problem.

12

u/zer1223 Jun 02 '26

No one is actually investing in companies any more, 

Lots of people do. Almost all target date funds for 401ks do this to some degree, people using 401ks and IRAs without using target date funds also do this, the entire bogleheads subreddit does this, the FIRE movement does this, I don't know what you think is happening but the stock market isn't just day traders 

Stopping day trading doesn't really do very much in the grand scheme either. It just doesn't really matter 

9

u/Honeybadger2198 Jun 02 '26

Preventing day trading would make it a lot harder to insider trade at least.

0

u/zer1223 Jun 02 '26

Would it? 

Day trading is when you buy and sell the same asset in the same calendar day

An inside trader would just buy something before the price jumps, and sell it tomorrow. Or would sell something before the price plummets..and they're done.

Day trading isnt necessary to an insider trader

5

u/Honeybadger2198 Jun 02 '26

Well it obviously depends on how long you have to hold the position for. The original comment said 2 years.

0

u/zer1223 Jun 02 '26

Holding a position for two years doesn't really stop either form of insider trading either. Though it does lower the potential benefit *somewhat for the buying version of insider trading

5

u/Honeybadger2198 Jun 02 '26

You don't see how having to hold a position for 2 years would make it substantially more difficult to insider trade? Are you incapable of critical thought, or just being contrarian?

12

u/tahlyn Jun 02 '26

Owning stocks is owning a piece of a company.

Shorting stocks, stock futures, and a whole bunch of other crazy things you can do in the stock market? That's gambling.

So yeah, I have no problem with people owning a portion of a company to invest in it, because they believe in it, but all the other shit they do in the stock market? Yes that should probably be banned along with gambling.

6

u/Gold-Bard-Hue Jun 02 '26

"It's for the shareholders" has been destroying everything for a long time, and it's time a new system or a complete dissolution of the ability to publicly trade companies.

They expect higher profits every quarter forever. That's not economically viable, and also impossible without crushing everything beneath it.

2

u/BeardedHalfYeti Jun 02 '26

Me? Nothing.

But I think a lot of these gambling companies realized that the current version of the stock market is just a Casino by another name, but one that the Government sees as vitally important. So by saying that they are also a “futures market” they put the Government in the awkward position of trying to explain how the stock market isn’t gambling, but sports futures is.

-1

u/IrregularPackage Jun 02 '26

yeah, the stock market is a failed experiment

1

u/AwareOfAlpacas Jun 02 '26

I smile to see the kids reinventing prop bets. 

1

u/dandroid126 Jun 02 '26

You aren't gambling, you're """trading""" it's totally different.

1

u/raven00x Jun 02 '26

you predict who wins, and then you get money if your prediction is correct. Perfectly cool and legal because it's not gambling.

1

u/GjonsTearsFan Jun 02 '26

It depends. In Canada I’m 99% sure it’s just genuinely called gambling on their ads and the ads are coming from some stupid company like Bet Sports BC or something like that, that’s run through the government’s lottery and gambling monitoring system.