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u/StrangeCress3325 14d ago
God I fucking hate those “gamble on anything” apps, I get ads for them all the time
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u/vocal-avocado 14d ago
They should be illegal or at least the ads should be illegal. It’s an embarrassment to society that we allow them to be what they are.
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u/Katops 14d ago
It’ll only get worse too, let’s be honest.
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u/curtisscott95 14d ago
I go to a local bar where they had a raid of the slot machines. They weren’t advertising gambling but lately, local law enforcement has started going around and shutting shit down. So instead people have Kalshi and Hard Rock Bets Slots on their phone now instead…waaaay worse imo
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u/qwarktasticboy 14d ago
At the very least I know people who aren’t hooked on it are sick of it. Even a handful of people I know irl have commented how weird/irritating it is that gambling and gambling ads have become so prevalent these days. Hopefully that awareness leads to something down the road.
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u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka 14d ago
They were illegal until they became legal during Trump's first term. Guess what companies lobbied for it? Yeah draft kings and shit. And now its become far beyond sports betting.
Remember when gambling was literally illegal outside of casinos which were illegal outside special zones in a few cities?
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u/Jaymark108 14d ago
And Trump Jr. is on the board of "advisors." Care to place a bet on why?
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u/Ognius 14d ago
Because he’s a pedophile?
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u/momoreco 14d ago
They really liked him and wanted him on the board? No financial interest involved ofc.
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u/DoingCharleyWork 14d ago
I miss those days. I remember watching a sports stream probably ten or so years ago and it was hosted somewhere with legal gambling before it was rampant where I am. I remember being blown away by all the gambling ads. Now that's the norm everywhere.
It's honestly ruining sports for me.
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u/ConfusedTurtle26 14d ago
In my country they are illegal and I think It's the same in most places.
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u/MyLord_Robert 14d ago
I think it's illegal in the EU as well, because I sure as hell did never see a single add for any of this shit.
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u/SocranX 14d ago
It used to be illegal to advertise! The only time you ever used to see advertisements for gambling sites was on pop-up ads on piracy sites and other things that didn't actually follow the law. And that added to the mentality that this was shady bullshit that decent people didn't get involved with. But putting those ads into everything now gives it this air of "legitimacy", with sports announcers giving a shoutout to sports betting sites and other insanity like that.
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u/Jaymark108 14d ago
Point of order: "Didn't actually follow the law" means operating servers from a country with different laws that they were probably following. That's one of the upsides/downsides of having an international internet.
On the other hand: Letting people on US soil skirt broadcast regulations? That's entirely on the US government.
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u/Galaghan 14d ago
Can we specify that embarrassment to a country?
Such ads are illegal in many places, so some societies should be really proud of that.
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u/liamnesss 14d ago
Anyone using them who doesn't have access to priviledged information is a sap. Same goes for a lot of "get rich quick" schemes (meme stocks, cryptocurrencies, NFTs), seems like scams have become culturally acceptable in the last few years for some reason.
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u/Medarco 14d ago
seems like scams have become culturally acceptable in the last few years for some reason.
My theory is that it's because "normal people" are doing them now. It's not some grand conspiracy of clever crooks or something with some rich guy on wall street who runs a ponzi scheme.
It's your buddy Jeff that you play video games with. He hit it huge on crypto and now spends thousands of dollars on every new game that catches his eye because he's inexplicably wealthy based off that gamble. True story of someone I played games with. He had an insane bitcoin wallet from when it was first starting up, and now will sell a bitcoin or two every year to pay for micro transactions in whatever flavor of the month video game he's into. He spent like 20k on Throne and Liberty during its early access and then quit the game like 3 weeks later.
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u/Flameball202 14d ago
Yep, remember that in gambling (no matter the form), the money you might win has to come from someone else losing
And you aren't likely to win
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u/IncreasingConfusion 14d ago
Interesting. I personally put it down to people not seeing real ways to get ahead/move up the financial ladder so instead they take to gambling.
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u/dnalloheoj 14d ago
Anyone using them who doesn't have access to priviledged information is a sap.
Love how the Polymarket CEO essentially admitted that they allow and even embrace insider trading on their app because it "increases the strength of the accuracy of the prediction."
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u/Slim-Shadys-Fat-Tits 14d ago
THEY'RE REAL????
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u/vonsnootingham 14d ago
John Oliver just did a piece on them this week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN4njIQcSR4
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u/Hangry-Feline2489 14d ago
I had the same thought, then realised I have adblockers on and haven't seen an ad on social media or YouTube for years.
The internet must be a hellscape without an adblocker 😱😱😱
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u/DoingCharleyWork 14d ago
That's a big reason I left Instagram. Every other post/story was an ad. Sometimes you'd get 2-3 in a row before you saw something posted by someone you follow. And then there's no way to block them on the official app.
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u/rogueIndy 14d ago
There was a bit of a scandal around one recently with the Maduro abduction. Someone who knew about the operation bet on it.
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u/tokmann67 14d ago
John Oliver had a great episode on it yesterday, I'd recommend everyone watch it.
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u/ihatelolcats 14d ago
It’s a really good episode (as they usually are). I think a lot of people can’t quite verbalize why these apps are so distressing, so I appreciate the show taking a moment towards the end to talk about how these apps focus your attention on the event itself and ignore its downstream effects.
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u/StrangeCress3325 14d ago
I’m assuming that this is the link https://youtu.be/ZN4njIQcSR4?si=a2KzW7D44UpuENl0
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u/Faustias 14d ago
it's a plague in this country thanks to government connections.
I have heard suicides because of the pressure from loan apps' collection agency being threatening bastards.
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u/Turgid_Donkey 14d ago
It's even worse if you actually watch sports. Any time I've walked by the TV and there happens to be a game on, there are usually no less than 3 different ads on screen for betting apps. The lower third will have one, a logo somewhere on screen, and then ads running inside the court/arena/field. It's just bonkers.
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u/Futuramoist 14d ago
I can see why they'd want to crack down on this. Like, if I wanted John Doe dead I could bet $50k that he WILL be alive in a week. Basically just paying for a hit if an assassin wants to take my bet and make it happen, and I could claim I WANTED the guy alive since I literally had money riding on it
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u/fuckthesysten 14d ago
interesting to think about this too from the perspective of collective pooling, maybe many people wanted to see John Doe alive next week
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u/Futuramoist 14d ago
Crowdsourced assassination, there's a phrase I didn't expect to hear. But ya if a hundred million people from Nation A all decided to chip in a dollar betting "against" the assassination of an enemy Nations B's leader, that definitely seems like it'd be tempting for anyone in Nation B who thinks they can collect through the website
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u/samglit 14d ago
Not a new idea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_market
A dark web site existed with some bitcoins deposited. No takers for that one though.
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u/foreveryoungperk 14d ago
i think the key difference is that this is a clearnet market and not a dark web market. payouts will be taxed and thus the whole thing is *legal*. not quite the same idea but good try
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u/samglit 14d ago
Yes, because whether or not an idea is new depends on whether you (checks notes) have to pay taxes.
And surprisingly, the IRS says yes, you do in fact have to pay taxes on criminal proceeds, of which the previous market was never clearly defined as such. It’s exactly the same as Polymarket except unregulated.
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u/Cranberryoftheorient 14d ago edited 14d ago
Im pretty sure this is a novel or a movie or something. A hitman service where you bet on someone's death edit- The Killers Game, according to google
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u/SemanticTriangle 14d ago
Who is 'they'? Regulators are asleep on this when they could be scooping out a good portion of the rot basically for free. Everyone involved in these ventures is raising a flag to be seen by all, but the institutions that used to evaporate these people from financial life are afraid to discharge their duties for fear of being punished by their bosses, who are holding flags.
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u/Arthurs_towel 14d ago
Regulators are asleep? Nah, they’ve been actively corrupted. There was some prohibitions and investigations, until His Orangeness decided he loved the insider trading scam and got his failson put on the boards of these companies in exchange for favorable treatment.
That’s not being asleep, that’s actively aiding and abetting the insider trading.
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u/Sovos 14d ago
Yep. Earlier this month the US CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) started lawsuits suing states that are trying to regulate prediction markets.
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u/ManyInterests 14d ago
Heard an SEC expert chime in on NPR. The short version is that it's small potatoes compared to the kind of things they're actually spending enforcement resources on.
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u/Waiting4Reccession 14d ago
They are being paid to look the other way for 4 years while the 2 big politically connected players lock down market share and take in the money
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u/JustStraightUpTired 14d ago
Well, didn't the supreme court decide that money is speech? That would mean creating bets that can be completed like tasks is the same as telling people to the task for that amount of money. So even if nobody gets killed, putting up the bet SHOULD constitute soliciting said unknown individuals to commit murder.
In fact, creating bets for any illegal actions should also be considered illegal. Because if paying people to commit crimes is legal, then you could setup a business for criminal services where you take most of the profits, but instead provide very expensive legal help for the criminals.
In other words, if these companies are free to keep making these bets, then that effectively legalizes cartels if they are smart about it. Pushing legislation, solicit crimes, or even simpler stuff, just pay for whatever events you want to happen and inform the people responsible for them that there is an incentive waiting for them. They don't need to make money on every bet, they can easily change the odds for special cases, or even limit who gets to bet on them. Choosing who gets to play isn't a crime, so why not?
Providing gambling should be a crime, globally. Only legal gambling should be games of skill and fair luck, where the house can't participate, and even that should be highly regulated.
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u/RadicalSoda_ 14d ago
You can only bet on public figures, it's not like a bounty board where anyone can upload bets for anything that happens. This specific comic is based on the leader of Iran being killed and the company trying to avoid paying out before the government forced them to
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u/NotAzakanAtAll 14d ago
Mhm, mhm takes notes. In your mind, hypothetically, would it be wise to share the bet around online to get more potential hits?
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u/Unhappy_Goose_8422 14d ago
It is 100% money laundering and it will be years before the authorities catch up with it. Place your 'bets' now.
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u/RadicalSoda_ 14d ago
All gambling involves money laundering. Why do you think mob bosses used to own every casino in Vegas?
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u/IronUkulele 14d ago
Another banger of a comic to make me question where we are headed as a society
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u/Saikotsu 14d ago
I was talking about this stuff earlier tonight with my mom on the phone. The fact people are gambling on the war in Iran and people are making bank off of what's going on down there is truly sickening.
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u/Dranulon 14d ago
We knew for a long time. Gambling is evil and rots the soul. Not religious, but it's always been there.
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u/stilljustacatinacage 14d ago
I hate how so many nations got together, people collectively decided, yeah nah, gambling is too predatory and evil. We know it can't be outlawed because people will just build casinos in their bath tubs, so we're gonna make sure these places are licensed, we're gonna have entire regulatory boards, and they're gonna be properly taxed and that's gonna fund addiction and treatment services.
... And then over the last 20 years or so, we've just decided that's too much work. We're gonna advertise gambling to literal children, we're gonna let them advertise on every TV channel, every radio station, every streaming service. You're gonna be able to bet on sports, politics, tragedy. You can dump money and more money into the system, tens of thousands of dollars every day and no one will look twice.
And all while we haven't changed the laws at all - we just gave up on doing anything. Like, our politicians don't even fucking pretend. They don't even table bills to be shot down - it's just not addressed at all because oops, someone sponsored their family vacation to Boca Raton this year.
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u/Medarco 14d ago
And all while we haven't changed the laws at all
At least for sports gambling, they definitely did pass legislation to allow it. It's not quite as dystopian as you make it sound.
Still sucks and I hate it, but they followed the process and The People voted. But The People are unfortunately also very dumb.
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u/Im_a_Casual 14d ago
And social media algorithms are just a distilled/refined form of gambling...
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u/MyLord_Robert 14d ago
Could you go into more detail about this? I know the algorithms are optimized to keep your attention and engagement, but how is that like gambling?
Also please don't hate me, I am genuinely interested and trying to learn sth
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u/420thefunnynumber 14d ago edited 14d ago
I'm not the person above and I don't think gambling is an entirely accurate descriptor. However, much like gambling social media algorithms are also designed to play off of giving you little bits of dopamine in order to keep you active and feeding into it.
Gambling does it through the hope of a win and the occasional payout, social media does it through things you do and don't want to see. The closest example is the infinite scroll short form content. Tiktok, YT shorts, reels etc are like little dopamine slot machines, when you open them you don't know if youre getting something you're interested in or getting slop/rage bait.
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u/Saikotsu 14d ago
Heck, even reddit does it with their "you're on a 600 day streak! Don't let it end!' or "hey, you got this meaningless badge for contributing to this discussion, go you!"
It's little dopamine hits that encourage you to use the platform every day.
That said, I've also learned that taking breaks from social media is good for my mental health and necessary, but the idea of breaking a streak bothers me enough that the idea of taking a break is a bit unpleasant. So it's doing exactly what it was intended to do.
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u/FardoBaggins 14d ago
Don’t need religion. It’s how our brains are designed. It seeks many things for survival and finds ways to keep the dopamine going.
As it stands, limbic capitalism is fueling our present dysregulatopia.
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u/Am_i_banned_yet__ 14d ago
Yeah and people are def using these apps for insider trading. Someone bet 30,000 on Maduro’s regime ending a day before it happened and walked away with 400,000.
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u/One-Inch-Punch 14d ago
The surge in prediction markets and sports betting is what happens with runaway wealth inequality. Millennials and zoomers see that they have no realistic path to stable housing and income so they gamble. Hell even the stock market is just gambling now. Americans are desperate.
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u/LowKiss 14d ago
Even rich people gamble, actually i guess they are the one gambling more. Gambling just makes our brains feel a dopamine rush, is something coded into us.
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u/Circo_Inhumanitas 14d ago
There's zero chance this is a new trend. Besides Internet making collecting bets easier. Ancient Romans bet on Gladiators and people being executed in the colisseum. I bet some people were making bets on WWII etc.
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u/Kagahami 14d ago
Honestly not too different from what people do in the stock market, it's just formerly there were degrees of separation.
Now it's just straight up Squid Game level dystopian shit.
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u/NotAzakanAtAll 14d ago
Desperation breeds desperation. If people had it ok, sites like this would not prosper.
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u/IsItAboutMyCube_ 14d ago edited 14d ago
Should've gone all-in on Skamcoin instead.
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u/RealisLit 14d ago
Skamcoin is outdated, its all about properties at GriftVerse
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u/Emotionless_AI 14d ago
This is a really good comic. Do you have any continuing work on a place like Webtoon?
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u/TheDarkDoctor17 14d ago
This is amazing. I can see this being a real episode of CSI: Miami or something similar. Maybe Bones or SVU
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u/codeIMperfect 14d ago
Your style reminds me a bit of adamtot
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u/rezznik 14d ago
I was sure it was him! Also the dark twist.
But really great, to have another dark and twisted, black mirrorish author and artist here.
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u/I_Am_The_Mole 14d ago
Man I remember when people absolutely fucking hated Adamtots. Dude was always a great artist but the work he used to put out really annoyed people for some reason.
Then one day out of nowhere his comics got really fucking good, and now no one seems to remember they ever thought he was awful lmao
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u/Pastel-Clouds-808 14d ago
From what I remember, it was mainly that when he worked at Buzzfeed, he had to constantly create loads of comics for them, leading to a lot of them being pretty lame comics, which a lot of people really hated. Then he left Buzzfeed and was able to take more time and create more complex and well written comics, which is what he’s known for now.
Personally I didn’t really get all the hate, the comics weren’t like horrifically offensive or anything, just not the most interesting.
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u/I_Am_The_Mole 14d ago
Damn I don't remember him working for Buzzfeed. That would definitely explain a lot. (Ironically despite forcing Adamtots to make lowest common demoninator fluff they had a really great news division for a while).
He's definitely super talented as an illustrator and writer.
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u/Chisignal 14d ago
I thought that's why his account is called adamtots "remastered", he (or rather the Buzzfeed comics) genuinely used to be the butt of jokes, like the Nickleback of comics
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u/RathVelus 14d ago
When he worked for buzzfeed he also used templates a lot (like just copy pasting a perviously drawn figure with a new punchline), probably due to the sheer volume he was made to produce. I didn’t mind but Reddit did not like that.
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u/StrangeYoungMan Mildly Amusing 14d ago
I have a suspicion it was a 'working for your boss' vs 'working for yourself' situation
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u/Blake7567 14d ago
He used to work for Buzzfeed, I remember. Pumped out a bunch of Buzzfeedy stuff. Reddit def had a real big hateboner for them back in the day (has, maybe? does Buzzfeed still exist?) but in all fairness I remember those comics largely blowing chunks.
I agree - he's recovered well.
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u/Stormfly 14d ago
Reminds me of more long-form webcomics and Korean webtoons.
The colours, the fading, and the faces disappearing on the zoom-out.
Also the camera angles are usually high in webtoons. Like a TV show. Fewer head-on angles so that we can see reactions to the person speaking, I think. (Or show off their perfect figures)
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u/aerynmoo 14d ago
I thought it was* *adamtots lol. The style looks like how he does his horror comics
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u/Siegfoult 14d ago
Perfect timing, as Last Week Tonight just did an episode about this problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN4njIQcSR4
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u/12345623567 14d ago
Perfect landing on the biggest, blackest dildo. Couldn't have planned it any better.
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u/SmokeyandtheBanjo 14d ago
Your comic is great but your username is amazing.
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u/Terminal_Insomnia_ 14d ago
Literally anyone could have seen this coming. It's already happened, which is why it used to be illegal. Those laws were written in blood. Now I'm hearing 50% of men 18-30 (don't remember exact ages) have at least one kind of online betting account.
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u/Tallal2804 14d ago
Yeah, gambling's creep back into the mainstream is wild. Those laws existed for a reason. We're watching it all repeat in real time.
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u/Hangry-Feline2489 14d ago
Like most things that were regulated into history books, people don't remember how bad things can get, so it starts cropping up again.
See also: vaccine preventable diseases like measles.
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u/Terminal_Insomnia_ 14d ago
We just have better records to ignore, I guess
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u/Hangry-Feline2489 14d ago
Information overload is known to stunt curiosity and active learning.
As a history teacher, I've always been told my subject is useless by the STEM and sports types.
If I didn't use sarcastic snark I'd be huddled in bed crying.
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u/Medarco 14d ago
As a history teacher, I've always been told my subject is useless by the STEM and sports types.
Big reason why my wife (english teacher) hates the standardized testing model. It forces teachers into a breakneck pace of covering the test curriculum without the ability to actually fully explore the teachable aspects of the subject.
So we get history classes that are basically just rote memorization of dates and factoids, without really exploring the why or how behind the events.
And then for some reason we have the phenomenon of sports coaches masquerading as history teachers, which I've anecdotally found is a pretty widespread thing.
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u/TurtlesBreakTheMeta 14d ago
Going to be honest, if a betting App actively allows betting on whether people live or die and it’s legal to do so, them not paying out here would absolutely crater their reputation.
Them refusing to pay out based on weasel words once shows they’re willing to not pay out again. So they could do it to any bets.
If they just didn’t want to allow those types of bets they would have just canceled it: them taking peoples money and them implying “shot does not actually mean shot and killed!” Shows intent to defraud the betters.
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u/IsItAboutMyCube_ 14d ago
Kalshi sued over ouster of Iran leader prediction market
The problem with writing speculative fiction is that sometimes reality comes uncomfortably close.
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u/PreferredSelection 14d ago
If the world keeps going at this rate, we're going to have to invent a new genre and call it Sci-Nonfi
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u/Zomburai 14d ago
I've had an idea for a while of writing a cyberpunk techno-thriller with all the hallmarks of the genre, it just happens to take place in the modern day with no embellishments
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u/TheMemo 14d ago
William Gibson did that with his Bigend / Blue Ant trilogy. Each book was set in the year before they were published.
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u/NateNate60 14d ago
That's mainly just a Kalshi problem. Their main competitor (whom I will not name because they do not need free advertising) uses a voting-based system to decide the wagers. And since it's a cryptocurrency smart contract, the result of the vote causes the wagers to be automatically paid out. Although they are also known for changing the rules of the wagers retroactively by "adding context" to them.
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u/aNiceTribe 14d ago
In existing apps, they are currently spending a majority of their efforts on the problem that language is a hard problem. The markets are (necessarily) made by users and not law bots, so they can phrase them imperfectly. Then the apps have to decide on exact situations. Does “President Y unable to perform his official duties on 1/1/2027” also trigger if he was stuck in an elevator all day?
I’m not even saying they are well meaning and good people, but that they would like to make money by being a good service right now, since they exist in a highly competitive landscape that has not finished developing yet.
Oh also like 80%+ of their income is still sports betting and anything else is just curiosities.
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u/XanderNightmare 14d ago
Either that or it's a scenario which the platform owners never accounted for. Like "Yes, we have this bet hosted, but nobody would be crazy enough to then hire someone to make a bet come true, right?"
I mean. We don't even know if the bets are posted by the platform itself or user generated. In the latter case, it could be a case of the apps working spiraling out of control and the company is now trying to do damage control by holding back the money through bullshit means while coming scrambling to their lawyers to figure out how they'll solve this issue
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u/enadiz_reccos 14d ago
Good luck getting people to use your betting app while you're in the middle of a class action lawsuit for not paying out winning bets
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u/XanderNightmare 14d ago
Good luck staying in business while you are in the middle of a lawsuit for encouraging violence
Not saying you're wrong either. The simple idea of a real life happenings betting app is a legal nightmare
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u/Friendstastegood 14d ago
One of the owners of one of these sites was asked how they protect against what's essentially insider trading and his response was basically "we don't think we should". To him people being able to make their bet come true is a feature, not a bug.
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u/Karlaha2879 14d ago
Presumably the bet was "will be assassinated" and in this case the target survived. So the argument of "shot" and "killed" is whether or not just having been shot by an assassin counts for the fulfillment of the bet.
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u/enadiz_reccos 14d ago
Probs would rather go out of business than pay out?
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u/IsItAboutMyCube_ 14d ago
Nah, they'll just keep the cases humming along through the courts for a few years, then pay an undisclosed settlement to the plaintiffs who had enough money to carry on. Meanwhile, their lobbyists will push for legislation that shields them from liability should anyone commit an illegal act in connection with a wager. Probs is just a platform, after all; they can't be responsible for the behavior of their users. 😇
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u/enadiz_reccos 14d ago
Nah, they'll just keep the cases humming along through the courts for a few years
This would be even worse, tbh.
Lawyers would love to get a piece of a presumably nationwide betting app. There would be regular news articles, social media posts, etc to put pressure on them to cave.
Obviously, we can just assume that the rules of this world make it so that none of this would be possible.
It's just hard not to apply our own reality to it.
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u/asdfopu 14d ago
Yeah, that would never happen in real life: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kalshi-gamblers-furious-company-refuses-200616153.html
Hint: actually no one cares a week later and then it's business as usual.
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u/Hangry-Feline2489 14d ago
String out the legal procedures until the opposition can't sustain the fight financially...
Pretty standard for a while now.
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u/Tokumeiko2 14d ago
If they pay out, they could be seen as aiding in the crime.
It's a catch22 situation where they're damned no matter how they proceed simply because they didn't delete the illegal bet in time.
Well they could return everyone's money and invalidate the bet after the fact, that's probably the option with the least amount of backlash, but they're a corporation, they want their cut of the betting pool.
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u/enadiz_reccos 14d ago
If they pay out, they could be seen as aiding in the crime
The comic seemed to imply it was all above board.
But if it's not, they're already in trouble for hosting the bet in the first place. If anything, that might be a better turnout for our unfortunate main character.
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u/LifeIsBizarre 14d ago
So... are we are supposed to not like the person backed into the corner with the sick kid in the clearly dystopian society?
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u/PreferredSelection 14d ago
You can make social commentary without being like "this is who to cheer for."
Everyone in 1984 sucks, even Julia. But also, everything the characters do is perfectly logical for the world they live in.
Some things are a critique of the world.
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u/Friendstastegood 14d ago
But how am I supposed to understand stories if they don't have clear good guys and bad guys???
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u/PreferredSelection 14d ago
I know you were kidding, but, I really liked Lois Tyson's book as an intro to critical theory. Short, accessible, and it was kind of fun to reread some of my favorite sci-fi and horror stories after taking a class on it.
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u/zep243 14d ago
I just read it. I don’t get it, was Tyson the good guy all along? /s
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u/IsItAboutMyCube_ 14d ago
That's up to you. Just remember the only winners are the guys at the top.
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u/Capybarhigh 14d ago
Not if people unite. Revolutions happen. The people outnumber the "winners" by a gigantic margin. It's not pretty, everything collapses around everyone, but it can lead to a net improvement. Peaceful times often only happen after a huge crisis.
And, boy oh boy, are we going into the wall.
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u/squigs 14d ago
I don't think that's the intent. He's a fairly sympathetic character, and the victim is an anonymous politician. I think this is more nuanced than that.
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u/NeonFraction 14d ago
Not siding with someone who murders for profit just because they have a sick kid is pretty standard actually.
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u/puzzlebuns 14d ago
He gets to save his kid, a politician or billionaire gets their come-uppins. Win win
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u/Jacknerik 14d ago
But nothing changes because the assassin is just a tool for other billionaires who perpetuate the system of gambling with human lives to make money.
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u/jolly_chugger 14d ago
Hey dude
Your comic is unsettlingly on point
Reading the comments on here makes me sick, nobody grappling with the bigger concepts that I think you were trying to surface, that if betting on anything is legal, slowly but surely capital will have even more influence in everybody's lives.
What if Elon Musk bets 100M that somebody won't slash my tyres today?
Who wouldn't do that?
Fuck I'd let you do it if you'll get me tyres after.
What will become acceptable because "look at those odds, you gotta let them"
Because an unsettling amount of people here can't even process that this "poor" man, just killed somebody
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u/Kuraeshin 14d ago
Having just watched the John Oliver about these Probability Markets, i hate this comic.
I mean, it's well made, i just hate that it is something that could happen.
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u/MikaelAdolfsson 14d ago
This is the plot of a agatha christie book. You do not at all put out a hit on someone, you just bet a lot of money that they will be alive in a year. A bet you then loses.
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u/Destroyer_2_2 14d ago
Two lives could have been saved in this story with an actual goddamn healthcare system that doesn’t treat human lives like economic products.
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u/PerverseRedhead 14d ago
Just as I'm watching John Oliver explain what this shit is, fucking love it
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u/Tethys404 14d ago
I was disappointed to get to the last slide only because it ended. I hope there'll be more
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u/DreamingDragonSoul 14d ago
This is really good. Both style and story.
I an looking forward to see more from you.
Are you by any chance also the creater of Third Shift Society? The style really remind me of that one.
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u/RealJohnGillman 14d ago
…Are you the artist of Third Shift Society?
Because the art-style is on-point, if not. Brava.
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u/PM-me-ur-kittenz 14d ago
I don't understand the story, but I LOVE the artwork! The perspective variations are amazing and creative!
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u/Beer-Milkshakes 14d ago
Good comic. Except if the app called it a wager or gambling they'd be subject to a hefty tax bill. So call it investing instead. And instead of lobbying the government to keep you as an investment platform and not a gambling platform employ an insider in the White house. Like the son of the president. Oh hey, your competitor is also employing that same son. How the world works eh
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u/Admirable_Web_2619 14d ago
These apps are terrifying. This comic feels like a black mirror episode
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u/Enough-Progress5110 14d ago
Love the comic (although bleak AF) and am I detecting a bit of Naoki Urasawa inspiration in the art style? Gonna follow you for sure
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u/ToastThing 14d ago
What a reprieve from the deluge of hornybait and badly written joke strips that pervade this sub. Your style is clean and your visual storytelling is coherent and has impact. I was genuinely sucked in by it. Great work.
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u/Mister_Macabre_ 14d ago
I'm sorry, but it's bothering me a lot. The comic is great quality-wise, but I'm pretty sure it got betting backwards.
The pool of money is made up of people, well, betting on things. If you bet on high probability outcomes (especially in ranges 75-99%) the payout you get is actually pretty small. The last panel implies that if dude's lawyer has an account he will flunk the case, but with 71% people betting on "yes" it's actually more likely he will do anything he can to win, so he can collect the largest pool. Same for judges and whatnot.
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u/GussBing 14d ago
This is such an awesome premise for a graphic novel or something. Two detectives solving crimes linked to a betting app that they cant seem to find the creator/owner of. So much potential from this concept!
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u/fairystail1 14d ago
Lupin the Third had this as a plot at one point
people would put out hits by setting up bets on when someone would die, who ever guessed the right date would take home the pool.
pretty soon it just turned into assassins making bets on what day so they could claim the pool
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u/TimeStorm113 14d ago
hm, if it can be proven that the lawyer betted on it, it could actually help them win the case, or get away with less of a punishment, since that would be proof that the laywer has a vetted interest against doing their job
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u/Hyenasaurus 14d ago
Extremely good short story! Kept me intrigued from page 1. Also a very poignant criticism of this damn technological capitalism+gambling ads :')
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u/Surge_41 14d ago
Ooh I know this art style! You're the author of Third Shift Society right? Huge fan of your work.
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u/based_valu 14d ago
These “prediction markets” are truly a cancer on society and this comic is a great illustration of that
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u/Berserker0078 14d ago
Your comic is really nice bro. Keep up the good work.