From: Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Date: Wed Aug 27 2003 - 03:50:46 MDT
On 8/27/2003, Emlyn O'regan wrote:
>Robin Hanson wrote, some time back:
> > > Information markets *are* effectively illegal in much
> > > of the private sphere in the US, including Nevada.
> > > Nevada only allows betting on sports. The CFTC allows
> > > people to create markets for gambling on commodities,
> > > if risk-hedging functions are served and lots of money
> > > will flow through it. The only apparent safe place to
> > > do private info markets is entirely within a particular
> > > corporation.
>
>Here's a weird idea...
>
>Could you create a corporation for the purposes of making such a market
>legal? All people who want to trade or see information become part of the
>corporation in some way, and the entire thing becomes internal. You could
>join people up online, so that it'd behave exactly as though it was public
>access, but everyone who ever accessed it would become, technically, an
>employee or shareholder or something, on first access.
Imagine trying to do this trick to let people bet on football games, and
that thousands of people join up. Prosecutors would jump all over you and
claim that you were just trying to let people escape ordinary gambling laws.
And they would win. Because that is how our law works - it is *not* a set
of clear technical rules so that if you meet the rules you escape punishment.
It is a bunch of fuzzy general principles that give people excuses to punish
those who do stuff they don't like. If it smells to an ordinary person like
morally-repugnant gambling, then it's illegal. Welcome to democracy.
I'm afraid that if it looks like you've created this company just
Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
Assistant Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
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