Organized Money The Business Of Betting On Murder with Sen. Chris Murphy
Mar 24, 2026
Sen. Chris Murphy, a U.S. Senator from Connecticut and author on civic and policy issues, discusses the rise of prediction markets that let people bet on wars, assassinations, and government actions. He explains his bill to ban trades on sensitive operations. The conversation covers corruption risks, the moral harm of commodifying violence, and how war, spending, and broken institutions feed into these dangerous markets.
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Editor Bet And Got Kicked Off Polymarket
- Polymarket removed a user who edited MrBeast videos after he won thinly traded bets by knowing what MrBeast would say.
- The episode illustrates how inside knowledge by platform workers can produce easy wins and platform enforcement.
Ban Trading On Government Actions
- Ban trading on government actions and other markets where participants can know outcomes in advance.
- The BETS OFF Act would prohibit markets that give the illusion of fairness when insiders can reliably predict results.
Monetizing Violence Corrodes Moral Judgment
- Monetizing famine, war, and assassination erodes moral judgment and normalizes commodifying human suffering.
- Murphy links this to a broader spiritual crisis where commodification gives people an illusion of power.
