Sick gamblers made thousands betting on whether Titanic sub would be found
5 July 2023, 15:14 | Updated: 5 July 2023, 22:35
Gamblers made thousands of pounds betting that the Titan submersible would not be found.
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Millions of people around the world followed the hunt for the Titan sub for days last month, as rescuers desperately searched for the deep-sea vessel before its 96 hours of oxygen ran out.
Rescue ships later found that the Titan had imploded, which is likely to have killed all five men on board instantly.
But while the world waited with bated breath to hear of the Titan's fate, some people took a different kind of interest in the unfolding story.
Using an online gambling platform called Polymarket, people placed bets on whether the sub's passengers would be found alive.
Read More: OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush compared glue holding Titan sub together to peanut butter
One gambler called Rich claimed he made about $3,250 [£2,550] by betting against the sub being recovered.
He said: "My answer would be that markets are fundamentally immoral. There’s no ethical consumption under capitalism.”
Many found gambling on people's death or survival to be distasteful.
One person asked: [W]hat stage of capitalism is investing in someone’s death?"
Another said: "Actually insane. Imagine making money off of if someone is gonna die or not."
On the page where the bets were being placed on whether they lived or died, it stated: "For the purposes of this market, the vessel need not have been rescued or physically recovered to be considered ‘found'."
"If pieces are located, but not the cabin which contains the vessel’s passengers, that will not suffice for this market to resolve to ‘Yes'.”
The fate of the Titan sub is not the only controversial global event that Polymarket offers a betting market on.
The company, known for its irreverent social media presence, also recently took wagers on the outcome of the failed Wagner coup and is currenltly offering odds on whether or not a nuclear bomb will be dropped this year.
