Inside the explosive growth of sports betting

This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. When U.S. and Israeli strikes killed Iran's supreme leader last month, some Americans weren't just watching the news. They were waiting for a payout after wagering on the Ayatollah's fate on a prediction market site called Kalshi.

When he died, Kalshi refused to pay, citing fine print that excluded death as a qualifying outcome. Thousands of Betters are now suing for $54 million. This isn't the first time a real-world crisis has become a windfall for online bettors. Days before U.S.

forces stormed Venezuela, an anonymous account on the platform Polymarket wagered tens of thousands of dollars that President Nicolas Maduro would be in U.S. custody by the end of February. When Maduro was captured, that anonymous better walked away with more than $400,000 in profit. That story stopped my guest, writer McKay Coppins cold. By that point, he was already four months into a reported experiment for the Atlantic, spending an entire NFL season gambling to understand what America's sports betting boom is doing to the country.

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