Okay, remember mine and Brother Red Pill's presentations from last "strong"end on prediction markets? Wow it's already been a week ago, the time is zooming! 👀 Well, this just happened... Shoutout to Brother Red Pill for that deep dive into "prediction markets" (lol) — that was awesome. For those who caught either presentation, you already know how platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket work. For anyone who missed it: these are sites where people bet real money on real-world outcomes — elections, speeches, events — and the "odds" shift in real time based on what people are betting. Here's the story: George Santos — yes, THAT George Santos — just became the first person ever banned for life from Kalshi. What he did: back in February, he publicly posted that he'd be attending Trump's State of the Union. That pushed the odds of his attendance up to 75%. But behind the scenes, he was placing bets that he would NOT attend. He skipped the speech, pocketed about $17,839, and later joked, "I bet on myself. Literally." Kalshi's compliance team said he manipulated the market with his own public statements, then profited off knowing the real outcome — since he was the one person who actually controlled whether it happened. Lifetime ban, plus a $71K+ fine. Federal regulators (the CFTC) had already fined him separately earlier this year too. Has anyone seen this in the news? Curious what people think. And this is where I want to open the floor: should politicians and public figures even be allowed to bet on outcomes they have the power to influence? Is this any different from insider trading in the stock market? Where's the line? My take: No — I don't think politicians (or anyone with the power to influence an outcome) should be allowed to bet on it. Look what happened here: first real opportunity, and he tried to corner the market with some straight-up scandalous, underhanded moves. When you've got the upper hand on the outcome, that's not betting — that's cheating with extra steps.