[extropy-chat] Noisy future day (was: silent night)

[Robin Hanson]

On 12/22/2004, Brett Paatsch wrote:
>>Well things are looking the best they've looked in the fifteen years
>>I've been at this.  The CFTC is considering making them more legal - I 
>>was just  at conference on this.  And a few dozen companies are 
>>experimenting with internal markets.
>
>As a person that wants to use the service "more" legal doesn't really
>help me.  How much more is more on the sliding scale of legal :-)

It is already legal in the sense that if you spent a million dollars
going through the usual hoops to lobby the CFTC you could do it.
Problem is, the sort of markets can't generate enough revenue to
pay such a high cost.  So the idea is to bring down the cost.  The
lower the cost, the more chances a market can pay that cost.  And
so the "more" legal such betting becomes.


Robin Hanson  rhanson at 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