The serious internal challenges to our democracy and the foreign policy problems facing our nation make the next presidential election particularly consequential. Accordingly, I welcomed a think piece on the chances that the former governor of Rhode Island, Gina Raimondo, might seek the Democratic nomination (“Raimondo is still considering a presidential run,” Metro, Jan. 13). Dismayingly, however, the fifth paragraph of the story mentions how much money one could win by wagering on her candidacy on two prediction markets.
This gratuitous information merely advances the aims of an industry that thrives by inflicting public health harms on those addicted to betting, a problem further exacerbated by the fact that these markets are vulnerable to insider trading, as noted in Abdallah Fayyad’s Jan. 11 Ideas piece, “Prepare to be fleeced in online prediction markets.”
In the future, I would hope the Globe will fully analyze serious political and policy questions without sharing odds given by companies that victimize vulnerable bettors.
Mark S. Sternman
Somerville
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