Betting Sites. I ran across a John Stossel video where he touted the accuracy of bettors over polls and pundits in predicting election results. It’s fascinating and you can be sure I will be watching the site Stossel mentioned, two weeks from today.

PredictIt predates what we now commonly refer to as "the Internet." I recall placing bets on such things as the outcome of the OJ Simpson trial via e-mail that was routed through usenet (a server-to-server mesh using UUCP dialup links). There were some pretty outlandish claims proposed, none of which I can recall now. Politics was not emphasized, and it was much more of an all in fun kind of thing. One of the bets that I believed I won was betting against a "the Govt. will close down" claim during a budget crisis in Bush 41's presidency. When Congress could not pass a budget, I think this was 1990. Many Fed. workers were furloughed, but I was able to find evidence in published media that these represented fewer than 1/3 of Federal employees, so things were not "closed down." The administrators ruled against me, so I lost $1.

There may have been nothing more telling about the stink on the 2020 Presidential election than Las Vegas bookies not paying off on Biden's "victory" for weeks (months?) after the election.

After the debate, the odds for Dr Oz winning the PA senate race jumped by 20 points! Hope this one is accurate

Link