Where is the betting world heading?: crypto casino Jackpot.bet has launched a game with bets on missile strikes in the Middle East, including Iran. Against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Ukraine, such gambling raises serious questions about the ethics and boundaries of the industry..
Sometimes you discover news from the world to your face and the casino - and you catch yourself thinking: Seems, the industry has finally lost its sense of boundaries. The other day there was a story on the Internet, which, in my opinion, already goes far beyond the scope of ordinary gambling entertainment.
Crypto casino Jackpot.bet launched a game called Strike Zone. The point is simple and shocking at the same time.: players are offered to place bets on missile attacks on Middle Eastern countries.
An interactive map opens in front of the user. Starting point - Iran, and then about sixteen countries in the region, which are potential targets. The player chooses the direction of the “strike”, bets money - from 0,2 to 1000 dollars - and presses the start button. After this, the system simulates the flight of rockets and shows, which countries were “affected”.
Statistics are displayed in the so-called “command center”: probability of hit and potential profit. For example, Israel has one of the highest hit probabilities - about 15%, with coefficient 6,4. Yemen is the opposite, only about 1%, but the multiplier can reach 96.
The maximum bet per round is up to 10 thousand dollars, and the stated percentage of return to the player (e-RTP) amounts to 98%. Theoretical maximum winnings - up to a million dollars. The developers say, that each round is protected by Provably Fair technology on the blockchain, that is, the results can be verified independently.
But if we put aside the technical details, the main question remains - ethical.
We live in a world, where real wars are going on right now. Including the war in Ukraine. People are dying, cities are being destroyed, millions suffer the consequences of conflicts. And against this background the game appears, in which they offer to bet money on missile strikes as usual casino entertainment.
For me personally, this looks like crossing another moral line..
Moreover, such things are beginning to intersect with forecast markets. For example, bets on geopolitical events gained huge momentum on the Polymarket platform. One of the contracts, related to a possible Israeli strike on Iran, collected more 529 million dollars. Analysts have discovered several crypto wallets, created literally a few hours before the real events - their owners earned about 1,2 million dollars. This has led to serious accusations of insider trading..
An equally loud scandal occurred on the Kalshi platform. After the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the service froze payments on the forecast market in the amount of about 54 million dollars. The reason is the wording of the contract: the death of a leader was not considered a voluntary resignation. As a result, positions were closed at a price, recorded a minute before the official confirmation of the news, and commissions were returned to traders.
All these stories show one trend: border between news, tragedies and gambling is gradually erased.
And the issue here is no longer technology., coefficients or blockchain. The question is, where should the moral line be drawn?, which the entertainment industry simply should not cross.
