Sites like Kalshi and Polymarket let you put money on who will win the Super Bowl, but they also let you guess when Taylor Swift is getting married or when and if the United States will strike Iran.

Americans can also make these predictions in any state.

‘They can ban you if you make money. … That’s a scam.’

While it is true that many gambling websites offer bets for political outcomes and other non-sports wagers, what these prediction markets are doing is not technically gambling at all, and therefore fly right over any state gambling bans.

Alabama, Alaska, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah are the 11 states that have restrictions/bans on sports betting, but prediction markets are not subject to these laws.

When users want to predict the price that a Pokémon card will go for at auction, under the law they are not placing a bet; they are entering into an “event contract.”

What is a prediction market?

According to Gambling Insider, prediction markets operate like financial exchanges, which means they are regulated federally by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Website Next.io notes that prediction markets do not need a sportsbook license, as there is no “house” setting the odds, and trading activity determines the prices for all event contracts. In sports betting, the house can set the odds to whatever it wants, but those odds are typically based on expertise in the sport or field.

RELATED: Polymarket bettors RAGE as the app says Maduro’s capture doesn’t count as an invasion

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Prediction markets have no odds, and there is no bet slip. Rather, the user is purchasing a share like a commodity, which trades between $0 and $1, and the payouts on each share is $1.

The closer a share is to $1, the more likely the market thinks the event is going to happen. For example, if the share is 99 cents, if that event happens, the payout at $1 will be minimal. If it was traditional betting, in that case the bet would be made at odds of about 100:1; betting $100 would win $1.

In prediction markets, users can sell at any time — which is not always available for traditional gambling — and garner profit that way. If a share or contract is purchased at 50 cents and the price (likelihood) rises to 70 cents, the user can duck out to gain the difference. This is akin to selling a stock that has risen in price before a big merger or significant market event.

RELATED: Jeffrey Epstein was BANNED from Xbox Live — for harassing other gamers

STRDEL/AFP via Getty Images

Major gambling networks like DraftKings and FanDuel have started to include predictions, which offer a much wider audience by expanding to a national market. DraftKings, for example, also allows for predictions on the stock market and cryptocurrency, which mirrors what most financial apps are becoming: banking and stock-trading hubs.

In November, Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan called traditional sportsbooks “a ripoff,” criticizing the fact that one can only “trade against the house.”

“They can ban you if you make money, and they can profile you as a user and change the prices based on you. That’s a scam,” he said.

The practice does have its higher-profile critics. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) said in January that prediction markets “need to be stopped” and that they threaten “the integrity of the sport.”

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​Fearless, Gambling, Prediction markets, Betting, Trading, Stock trading, Sports betting, Super bowl, Nfl, Football, Nba, Sports, Tech 

A new bill before Congress claims it will curb lawsuit abuse. It won’t. In reality, it will limit ordinary Americans’ access to civil courts.

The Protect Third Party Litigation Funding from Abuse Act, sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), would force plaintiffs in “any civil action” to disclose “the identity of any person (other than counsel of record) that has a legal right to receive any payment or thing of value” from the case.

Third-party funding is not clogging courts. It expands access to justice.

Plaintiffs would need to provide that information to defendants and the court. Anyone with a functioning brain can see what will happen next: The names leak, activists and corporate PR shops pick targets, and the people financing the lawsuit get punished for it.

If that sounds like a blackmail scheme, it is. And it would be perfectly legal.

Third-party litigation funding works like this: An individual, company, or organization advances money to a plaintiff or law firm to cover the costs of a lawsuit. In exchange, the funder receives a share of any judgment or settlement. If the plaintiff loses, the funder gets nothing.

The arrangement exists for a reason. Lawsuits can be expensive. Complex cases require investigators, expert witnesses, depositions, document review, and months or years of legal work. Deep-pocketed defendants know they can bury a plaintiff under delays, discovery fights, and endless motions while the meter runs at hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars an hour.

Litigation funding helps level that field. It gives plaintiffs a fighting chance against defendants who can afford to grind them down.

Issa calls this “abuse” because hedge funds and speculators sometimes fund cases in hopes of a return. “We believe that if a third-party investor is financing a lawsuit in federal court, it should be disclosed rather than hidden from the world,” Issa said when he announced the bill.

That sounds reasonable only if you ignore what trials are for.

A civil trial asks three questions: Did the defendant do what the plaintiff alleges? Did the defendant’s actions cause harm? If so, what were the damages (if any)? The identity of a funder does not help a jury answer any of them. If anything, it distracts from the merits and invites a side show: the defendant arguing the plaintiff is a puppet and the case is illegitimate because someone with money helped pay the bills. That argument deserves no special protection.

What counts is what the defendant did or didn’t do and whether it hurt the plaintiff. Who finances the plaintiff’s lawyers doesn’t change the facts of the case.

RELATED: A one-way national divorce: Anarchy for them, coercion for us

Cemile Bingol via iStock/Getty Images

A successful plaintiff also has the right to spend an award as he or she chooses, including paying debts and obligations incurred to bring the case. Issa’s bill would chill that option by scaring off funders through forced disclosure. The bill doesn’t touch defendants, who can hire every white-shoe law firm on the planet. It targets the side that usually needs help.

Issa’s bill also pretends it’s solving a crisis that doesn’t exist. The number of lawsuits filed each year in the United States, at both state and federal levels, has fallen by roughly one-third since 2012, according to Consumer Shield. Meanwhile fewer than 1% of state civil cases go to trial, and fewer than 2% of federal civil cases do. Most settle or get dismissed. Third-party funding is not clogging courts. It expands access to justice.

The bill also reaches far beyond any plausible federal interest. Federal cases account for only about 1.4% of civil litigation nationwide. States already have authority to regulate litigation funding — and some have. As of July 2025, seven states — Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Wisconsin — had regulations governing litigation funding, according to the Washington Legal Foundation. The fact that most states haven’t bothered tells you what lawmakers think: This isn’t a pressing problem.

The broader claim — that litigation funding drives frivolous suits — fails under scrutiny. A 2022 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found funders vet cases carefully and avoid interfering in litigation. They do that for a simple reason: They get paid only if the claim succeeds. The report put it plainly: “Funders select the most meritorious cases to fund because they only receive returns when claims are successful.”

Economic reality imposes its own discipline. Third-party funding does not “abuse” the system. It democratizes access to it.

Issa’s bill would do the opposite. By threatening people who finance lawsuits, it would tilt the playing field further toward big corporations and the ultra-wealthy — the parties most able to outspend and outlast everyone else.

Like it or not, civil suits help keep a free society free. They allow ordinary people to hold powerful actors accountable for harm. Restricting access to courts doesn’t stop abuse. It increases it — by giving the powerful more insulation from consequences. That’s the kind of “reform” Americans don’t need.

​Opinion & analysis, Lawsuits, Congress, Darrell issa, Third party, Litigation, Funding, Big business, Deep pockets, Plaintiffs, Investors, Civil court, Jury, Reform, Freedom, Free society 

Florida police said they worked quickly to identify a 19-year-old man who allegedly drove 1,500 miles to kidnap two sisters he met on Roblox and spoke with on Snapchat.

The sisters, 12 and 14 years old, were reported missing from their home in Indiantown on Saturday, which led to a multi-state search by local and federal law enforcement authorities.

‘There is no application online that is safe. If you can communicate with someone away from your house in the quiet of your own room, it can be a problem. So parents have to be vigilant.’

They were found by the Georgia Highway Patrol the next day when they pulled over a vehicle they believed the sisters were in.

Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said the man was identified as Hser Mu Lah Say, who had driven 22 straight hours from Nebraska down to Florida on Friday.

“We’re dealing with a grown man that drove all the way from another state, an individual they had never met in person, picked them up, and we really don’t know what he was gonna do,” Budensiek said.

Surveillance video helped police identify the car Say was driving. They provided images of the man in what appeared to be a convenience store.

Say was charged with two counts of kidnapping and three counts of interference of child custody. Budensiek said the man may face additional charges.

The sheriff made it a point to say the girls were “rescued” from the “scenario that they had placed themselves in.”

The Roblox game is widely popular among children but has been criticized for not doing enough to keep predators away from underage users. The company released a statement about the latest incident.

“We are investigating this deeply troubling incident and will fully support law enforcement,” the company statement reads.

“Roblox has robust safety policies to protect users that go beyond many other platforms, and advanced safeguards that monitor for harmful content and communications,” it added. “We have filters designed to block the sharing of personal information, don’t allow user-to-user image or video sharing, and recently rolled out age checks globally to limit kids and teens to chatting with others their age by default. While no system is perfect, our commitment to safety never ends, and we continue to strengthen protections to keep users safe.”

RELATED: 14-year-old girls that went missing from sleepover were forced into prostitution by men they met online, police say

Budensiek warned parents to monitor their children’s use of online apps.

“There is no application online that’s safe. If you can communicate with someone away from your house in the quiet of your own room, it can be a problem. So parents have to be vigilant,” he said.

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​Hser mu lah say arrest, Predators on roblox, Online predators, Nebraska online predator, Crime 

After weeks of hysteria in Minneapolis, with politicians and paid agitators alike calling for resistance, we saw a church targeted by those opposed to ICE. We have gone off the deep end. I penned an op-ed calling for what I thought was common sense and titled it “Turn Down the Rhetoric.”

The Columbus Dispatch printed the column after the shooting of Alex Pretti, but changed the title to read, “Renee Good wasn’t an ‘innocent.’” That’s the opposite of calming down the rhetoric. It was purposely inflammatory. Any wonder why people don’t trust the legacy media any more?

Compare Minnesota’s unrest with states like Florida and Texas, which have had far greater ICE activity and deportations.

Good’s life ended in tragedy. So did Pretti’s. That’s true whether you support President Trump or oppose ICE. Each incident affects families and communities and undermines trust in the system. My point in the op-ed was that rhetoric motivates action. Speech is free, but actions have consequences and — as we have seen — those consequences can be horrific.

There can be no mistake: Infringe on others’ rights or obstruct law enforcement, and you’re breaking the law.

When public officials encourage such “resistance,” they are only making a bad situation worse. But some, like my Democrat opponent for attorney general, Elliot Forhan, are still using vile rhetoric. He recently posted a video explaining how he will “kill Donald Trump.” That is the type of comment we should all oppose.

We need to turn down the temperature.

We should defend anyone’s right to express his or her views peacefully. Are you for open borders? Against ICE? You get to say so. You can even buy signs and shout it from a megaphone in the town square in a peaceful assembly. But those with the opposite opinions get to exercise the same right.

Violence is unacceptable. Let me restate that, because these days it seems like people read that as “violence is unacceptable unless I think it’s justified.”

Any violence, under any circumstance, is unacceptable.

Obstructing law enforcement personnel when they’re doing their job isn’t “peacefully protesting” or exercising your right to free speech. It is not OK to justify your actions because you believe someone else is violating the law.

Public officials should not incite violence or lawlessness. That is one of the reasons Minnesota’s sanctuary policies are so dangerous. Many of the arrests of violent illegal aliens could be made in the safety of the local jail or with the help of local law enforcement without street-level activity.

Compare Minnesota’s unrest with states like Florida and Texas, which have had far greater ICE activity and more deportations. The biggest difference is that those states cooperate, don’t have officials inciting lawlessness, and don’t accept protests that descend into mayhem.

That brings me to a simple point I taught my children when they started to drive. When interacting with law enforcement, be polite and cooperate. Say “yes, sir,” “no, sir,” and follow instructions. If police make a mistake, we can sort it out later — as the law requires. But don’t try to block the road with your car, refuse their instructions, or physically impede their activities.

RELATED: The left is at war in Minnesota. America is watching football.

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Police can mess up. When they do, they should be held accountable in court, under the law, with a presumption of innocence, just like everyone else. Police misconduct should be investigated and addressed. Ohio rigorously reviews use-of-force incidents, many of which are handled by the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the attorney general’s office. Wrongdoing will be punished, and it will continue to be punished when I’m attorney general.

Alex Pretti’s shooting was a tragic situation, and I want truth and justice as much as anyone. The investigation is ongoing, and as a strong Second Amendment supporter, I believe having a gun doesn’t make you inherently dangerous. Your actions while carrying a gun might, however.

Highly contentious protests can spiral out of control quickly, and actions and reactions can be deadly, particularly when human beings make decisions without the luxury of hours of analysis or instant video replays.

That’s why, as I made clear in my Columbus Dispatch op-ed, common sense means we need to turn down the rhetoric.

​Ohio, Leftist violence, Radical left, Alex pretti, Ice, Dhs, Ice protest, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Attorney general, Free speech, Debate, Opinion & analysis, Renee good 

The Department of Justice arrested a man for making threats against federal agents and cited his many posts on social media that called for violent resistance.

Kyle Wagner, 37, identified as a member of Antifa and called for militant attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, according to a DOJ press release Thursday.

‘If it has to be done at the barrel of a gun, then let us have a little f**king fun.’

“This man allegedly doxxed and called for the murder of law enforcement officers, encouraged bloodshed in the streets, and proudly claimed affiliation with the terrorist organization Antifa before going on the run,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement online.

Wagner allegedly made the threats from his accounts on Facebook and Instagram and called on his followers to “forcibly confront, assault, impede, oppose, and resist federal officers,” according to the DOJ press release.

He also referred to the agents as the “gestapo” and “murderers.”

The release cites specific comments allegedly made by Wagner.

“I’ve already bled for this city, I’ve already fought for this city, this is nothing new, we’re ready this time, ICE we’re f**king coming for you,” he allegedly wrote on Jan. 6.

The next day he wrote, “Anywhere we have an opportunity to get our hands on them, we need to put our hands on them,” and told people to “cripple” the agents.

“We want to know who they are. We will identify every single one of them and we will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. If it has to be done at the barrel of a gun, then let us have a little f**king fun,” he is said to have written.

“This is where ICE has come to die,” he added.

The DOJ also alleges that Wagner doxxed an individual by releasing their private information, because they were supportive of ICE.

The 31-page criminal complaint has numerous screenshots of his online comments.

WCCO-TV obtained video of Wagner’s arrest at his Minneapolis apartment. He wore a shirt reading, “I’M ANTIFA.”

RELATED: 10 members of terror cell charged with attempted murder over ‘ambush’ attack on ICE facility, feds say

Wagner was charged with cyberstalking and making threatening communications.

“Today’s arrest illustrates that you cannot run, you cannot hide, and you cannot evade our federal agents: If you come for law enforcement, the Trump Administration will come for you,” Bondi concluded.

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​Kyle wagner arrest, Terrorist antifa arrested, Death threats against ice, Extremist antifa violence, Politics 

On Friday, January 30, the Department of Justice released a third batch of Epstein-related material. The drop was the biggest yet, with over 3 million additional pages of documents, more than 2,000 videos, and about 180,000 images.

But in this gargantuan sea of information, BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler says there’s one key takeaway — and it has to do with President Trump.

Even though Democrats have tried to use the Epstein files to smear Trump for years, they have never been successful. Although his name appears numerous times in every file dump the DOJ has released, there’s been nothing that implicates him.

“Three million documents is a lot of pages. Not a single credible accusation or association with Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes,” says Liz.

In fact, in the latest document dump, there is an email written by Jeffery Epstein to author and journalist Michael Wolff in 2019, stating, “[Trump] never got a massage.”

“Totally exonerated — totally,” Liz reiterates, “which, of course, tells us something we already knew, but it’s worth remembering: Democrats are liars.”

The way some Democrats have hyper-fixated on certain wild claims involving Trump made via the FBI’s tip line — which is open to all, not barring “nutcases” — leads Liz to believe that they sincerely hope Trump is guilty of heinous crimes.

“They’ve acted like [the claim that Trump raped a 13-year-old girl in 1994] is a credible accusation, and yet in these documents, it is very clearly noted that the FBI found that allegation to be non-credible,” she says.

The same is true for the claim alleged by an anonymous online complainant that a sex trafficking ring was being run at the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, between 1995 and 1996, leading to some girls being murdered and buried on location. This claim was dismissed, however, as Trump purchased the golf course in 2002 and opened for business in 2006.

“The media knows this, and yet they reported and are continuing to report on this allegation as if it’s true and substantiated and something that the FBI found because the mainstream media hates you,” says Liz.

To hear more of her top takeaways, watch the episode above.

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​The liz wheeler show, Liz wheeler, Epstein, Epstein files, Donald trump, Trump epstein, Blazetv, Blaze media, Epstein case, Epstein client list