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Betting the future online
Author(s) -
Williams Leighton Vaughan
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
significance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1740-9713
pISSN - 1740-9705
DOI - 10.1111/j.1740-9713.2006.00143.x
Subject(s) - simple (philosophy) , cricket , the internet , advertising , business , computer science , world wide web , ecology , epistemology , philosophy , biology
The Internet has brought, among other things, the online betting exchange. From desks in the City or from laptops on sunny beaches, those in the know or out of it can place bets with each other on anything under the sun, whether likely—Australia beating England at cricket—or the reverse. If you have a hunch that a genetically engineered Tyrannosaur will wander down Oxford Street next year, and if you want to put money on it, Internet betting exchanges will find someone to accommodate you. Leighton Vaughan Williams explains how a simple change in tax regime has brought something other than just a more efficient gambling system. It has created a strangely accurate way of foretelling the future.