Online prediction markets have made it to Slate on the same day that my class on Information Aggregation and Predictions Market started.
From Bruce Reed on Slate:

After Bush signed the bill [banning online gaming] earlier this month, the online gaming giants shut down their American operations almost overnight. Sportingbet Plc, a British company, took a $391 million loss and sold its U.S. arm for $1.

Other companies are betting the law won’t stick. Trade Exchange Network, an Irish firm that runs Tradesports.com and Intrade.com, continues to welcome American customers. But here’s the real irony: At the same time the Republican Congress is trying to throw them out of the American market, the briskest business at Tradesports and Intrade is taking bets on whether Americans will throw out the Republican Congress.

In other news, I start the semester down $500 class bucks due to bad information about the Tigers’ victory prospects.

Categories: Information Asymmetries, Information Economics, Information Markets, Politics, Social Software