00:00But Derek Stephens is in the news today for blasting prediction markets.
00:06Derek Stephens talking on a podcast yesterday of prediction markets said, quote, they're
00:12pirates, they're thieves.
00:15We'd be able to offer minus 102 splits either way as well if we didn't have to pay all the
00:23fees.
00:24I tend to believe that more balanced heads are going to prevail.
00:30Stephens ticked off a list of fees and tax prediction market and taxes that prediction
00:35markets are flouting, including federal sports betting excise tax, state gaming tax, league
00:41data fees, and problem gambling funds.
00:45Quote, we're paying all those fees.
00:47They don't.
00:48Effectively, they're thieves.
00:51This is one of the best arguments, I think, from the sportsbook perspective to make publicly
00:58because it's easily understood.
01:01A lot of people don't get what prediction markets are.
01:04They don't understand sport event contracts and swaps.
01:07That stuff's really wonky.
01:09Can I bet on the Rockies tonight?
01:12Yes or no?
01:13Well, yeah, you can at Calshi.
01:15Okay, I get that.
01:16I'm betting on the Rockies.
01:18But if you come in and say, well, hold on a second, this company is not paying the taxes
01:25that other companies are required to pay.
01:29I'm not saying everyone will care about that.
01:31But I do think there is a section of the sports gambling community that will stop and go, wait,
01:37what are you doing?
01:38You're not doing, you're not, that the playing field is not level, that you guys are able
01:46to operate in a different way, that you're not paying the same thing that all these sports
01:50books are having to pay.
01:52And people do have some brand loyalty.
01:55I think people who use books like Beck Chris Arizona or Circus Sports or, you know, Prime
02:00and other books in different markets that have, you know, a reputation, sport trade when
02:05they were operating, like they have a reputation of taking bets and being public and talking
02:11about the industry and being involved in the industry.
02:14I think this is a really smart way for Derek Stevens to attack this and for anybody in the
02:20sports gambling world to attack the prediction market folks saying, look what I pay and look
02:25what they pay.
02:26And you tell me what they are doing, because I think we all agree that that's sports gambling.
02:31It's just by a different name.
02:33But by calling it a different name means I can take sports bets in California and Texas
02:38and not pay any taxes in California or Texas.
02:41Heck, not pay any taxes really at all.
02:43I'm paying taxes based upon a commodity swap.
02:47I'm not paying taxes that have been passed for sports gambling in state by states and nationally
02:54as well with the federal excise tax.
02:56So from a political standpoint, I think this is an easy thing to look at.
03:01A legal standpoint makes it more complicated.
03:04But from a PR standpoint, I think this is brilliant.
03:07I think it's absolutely brilliant for Derek Stevens and anybody in the sports gambling space
03:12to list out the things that you have to do to be in business, comparing it to the other
03:17things that prediction markets have to do to be in business and how vastly different they are
03:22and how really unfair it is that you're allowing these PMs to run around and take bets in these states
03:28without having to pay anything compared to what the actual sports bets, sports books are paying
03:33in Michigan, in New York, in New Jersey, in Pennsylvania, in these big states.
03:40So I thought that was really, really smart for Derek Stevens to point out the different way
03:46that these books are policed tax-wise from one being a sports book with a license
03:53and the other being a prediction markets that just gets to take business from those states
03:58without paying for anything comparatively.
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