Dana Taylor

Prediction markets have been exploding in growth over the past year, with billions of dollars being poured into bets on last year's election.

According to The Washington Post, there's currently about $200 million in political bets riding on the two dominant prediction platforms.

Kalshi and Polymarket.

What are the biggest risks in the rapid growth we see here?

News organizations are responding to the surge in prediction market interest with CNN, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, all announcing partnerships so they can share prediction market data with their viewers and readers.

But automated screen tickers aren't screening for context.

So as Axios has reported, they can end up spreading fake news.

How can the news media guard for this?

And finally, Alex, prediction market bets are essentially binary contracts on future events, right?

Yes, this will happen, or no, this won't happen.

What are the mental health risks of gamifying war with this kind of betting?

Alex, thank you so much for joining me on the excerpt.

Thanks to our senior producer, Kaylee Monahan, for her production assistance, our executive producers, Laura Beatty.

Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts at usatoday.com.

Thanks for listening.

I'm Dana Taylor.

I'll be back tomorrow morning with another episode of USA Today's The Excerpt.

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