Midas Oracle .ORG » Regulations

What was Max Keiser doing at InTrade HQ two years ago? –> “due diligence”…!??…

Chris F. Masse — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:59:35 +0000

[...] I asked John Delaney and his tech team when I was doing my due diligence on InTrade a couple of years ago in Dublin – about the firm’s own participation in making markets – and the potential to ‘manage’ prices in ways that were outside of the normal price discovery mechanism. I came away from that meeting not convinced at all that adequate checks and balances were in place to protect against manipulation. [...]

Details, details.

I am calling all my Deep Throats. Contact me. Tell me more.

Next: Does InTrade participate on its own prediction markets?

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Why does the CFTC allow the Cantor Exchange and not InTrade?

Chris F. Masse — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:00:16 +0000

Joe Weisenthal has a small opinion piece on why the CFTC allows real-money prediction markets on movie business, and bans those on politics or sports. The problem in the piece is that Joe is 100% wrong.

Joe says that there can’t be hedging in politics. Wrong. You can hedge your political ads on InTrade.
Joe says that there can’t be hedging in sports. Wrong. Businesses that operate inside a stadium could hedge the risk of the home team losing (which means less business for them).

So. why does the CFTC shy away from hedging on sports and politics? –> Politics. The CFTC is afraid of the US Congress, who would object to politics and sports “gambling”.

The CFTC is a weak institution, in the DC sphere of power. In the recent past, the CFTC lost one important battle against other parts of the US government —even though it was the CFTC that was on the right side of the issue at the time. With politics and sports betting, the CFTC does not want to lose another battle. It is a question of survival.

Cantor Exchange in the New York Times

Chris F. Masse — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:36:09 +0000

Richard Jaycobs uses the adjective “tremendous”. But here’s what the journalo says:

But buyers beware: if “Avatar” is any indication, the public isn’t always so wise about Hollywood fortunes. Most users of HSX.com predicted a flop, and if those users had placed real money on the Cantor exchange, they would have taken a serious hit.

http://www.cantorexchange.com/

http://www.hsx.com/

French online gambling laws are turning into a kafkian farce.

Chris F. Masse — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:23:09 +0000

The French government will ask internet gambling operators accessing the French market to turn over:

the ID details of all gamblers;
the banking info on all gamblers;
the details of all bets made by the gamblers;
the source code of all software used;
etc.

Crazy.

Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act

Chris F. Masse — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:58:46 +0000

Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act –> Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act

The BetFair and InTrade websites are going to be blocked in France…

Chris F. Masse — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:06:16 +0000

… unless they fork over “in between 52,000 euros and 215,000 euros” for a 5-year period.

Is that regulation or extortion?

Rejection of the patent claims involving a method of hedging risks in commodities trading

Chris F. Masse — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:12:42 +0000

Wikipedia:

The applicants (Bernard L. Bilski and Rand Warsaw) filed a patent application (on 10 April 1997) for a method of hedging risks in commodities trading. Such patent claims are often termed business method claims. [...] Bilski’s method claim was patent-ineligible because it did not “transform any article to a different state or thing.” [...]

It has been widely reported that the Bilski decision will call into question the validity of many already issued business method patents. [...]

Read the whole thing.

Via our Jason Ruspini

How Paul Volcker will save the world

Chris F. Masse — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:44:36 +0000

Paul Volcker:

The specific points at issue are ownership or sponsorship of hedge funds and private equity funds, and proprietary trading — that is, placing bank capital at risk in the search of speculative profit rather than in response to customer needs. Those activities are actively engaged in by only a handful of American mega-commercial banks, perhaps four or five. Only 25 or 30 may be significant internationally.

BetFair (via Right2Bet) are furious at the new French gambling laws.

Chris F. Masse — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:55:33 +0000

Right2Bet (operated by BetFair):

A Senate hearing on Tuesday looked at ways in which the French authorities could make it more difficult for operators not licensed in France from offering their products to French citizens.

They are now looking at adding wording to the new gambling bill, set to ‘open up’ the market in time for the World Cup this summer, that makes it illegal for any French-based company from taking advertising or even simply linking to certain sites.

Those sites based inside France, including multi-nationals with French subsidiares, notably Google, found to be ‘aiding and abetting’ (no pun intended) foreign operators could face fines of up to €100,000.

This is just another example of the French bill being a facade. They want to appear like they are liberalising their market, to fit in with EU rules, but clearly they are going to make it as hard as possible for foreign operators to offer their services to value-deprived French citizens, and are even looking to make it difficult for those who do apply for a French license.

At what point is someone going to wake up and say ‘enough is enough’? Don’t wait for someone else to do it, sign our petition today and add your voice to the thousands of EU citizens already calling for fairness in online gambling.

Our previous post

France = Communist China

BetFair, explain to me how this crazy video will help legalize the real-money prediction markets in foreign countries.

Chris F. Masse — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:46:13 +0000

The “Right To Bet” campaign: