Gambling really is everywhere. First it was Vegas, then sports and online betting. But now prediction markets entice enterprising guys to make and lose fortunes by wagering on everything from politics to the weather. And they’re apparently pretty good predictors.

The New York Times reports that economists lately are noticing that betting markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are pretty good at predicting not just political events but economic data, too.

Over the five years that Kalshi has existed, its thousands of gamblers have proved as accurate on average at predicting certain economic indicators as the highly trained forecasters, a working paper published last month by the National Bureau of Economic Research found. The crowd is also pretty good at predicting interest rate decisions from the Federal Reserve, and even better than the professionals at predicting the rate of inflation. Other research, by economists at the London Business School and Yale University, found that Polymarket bettors as a whole forecast corporate earnings more accurately than the analysts who are paid to advise investors on whether to buy or sell.

Sites such as Kalshi don’t operate like traditional sports books, which take on people’s bets using their edge, or informational advantage. Instead, prediction markets allow bets, or contracts, to trade on their platform for a fee. Depending on the outcome of an event, each contract either resolves at $1 or is wiped out. The sites rely on market makers to keep bets flowing.

Betting volume on non-sports questions has expanded at such a torrid pace that forecasters and analysts are taking now notice. On any given day, more than $60 million is at stake on the platforms on political and economic questions—far more than any earlier platforms reached. Of course, sports is still huge.

Kalshi saw record downloads during Super Bowl week, up 1,544% from the same time period last year, according to a report from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Daily active users jumped more than 1,100% to nearly 2 million on the day of the big game, the firm said. And that was just an appetizer for a banquet of sporting events in 2026 that are expected to drive surging volumes in event contracts.

Attorney General Pam Bondi combatively defended her leadership at the Justice Department to House lawmakers on Wednesday amid sharp criticism that she botched the release of the Epstein files and has wielded the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency to heed President Donald Trump’s calls to prosecute his political foes.

Besieged by questions over Epstein and accusations of a weaponized Justice Department, Bondi aggressively pivoted in an extraordinary speech in which she mocked her Democratic questioners, praised Trump over the performance of the stock market and openly aligned herself as in sync with a president whom she painted as a victim of past impeachments and investigations. “You sit here and you attack the president and I’m not going to have it,” Bondi told lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee. “I am not going to put up with it.”

Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, was one of the few Republicans to press Bondi on Epstein. Massie has largely broken with his party for months in criticizing the administration on the issue. During the hearing, he demanded accountability from the DOJ for sharing survivor information and accused officials of “over-redacting” potentially incriminating information. Bondi responded by calling Massie a “failed politician” with “Trump derangement syndrome.” The AG’s appearance before the committee comes one year into her tenure atop the Justice Department, a tumultuous period marked by a striking departure from the traditions and norms that have guided the department for decades.

Wednesday was a dramatic day in Italy, with the U.S. claiming Olympic medals in Alpine skiing, figure skating and speedskating. One of the American ice dance teams who stood on the podium Wednesday night has been a figure skating pair for 15 years, a couple for nine, and married for nearly two. However, Madison Chock and Evan Bates fell short of their first individual Olympic gold medal, losing in the figure skating event to the French team of Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry.

But U.S. speedskating star Jordan Stolz did win his first gold (and first Olympic medal ever), setting a new record in the 1,000-meter event. Currently considered the best skater in the world right now, Stolz competed in the 2022 Winter Games at 17 years old—the youngest male athlete on the team—finishing 13th in the 500 meters and 14th in the 1,000 meters. He has since dominated the competition.

The U.S. continued to add to its medal haul on the slopes, where it earned two medals in women’s moguls as Liz Lemley won gold and Jaelin Kauf earned silver. And snowboarder Chloe Kim, less than a month after she tore the labrum in her left shoulder in training, left little doubt that she’ll be a threat for gold in the halfpipe by registering the highest score in qualifying. (Did you know that the U.S. has medaled in every Olympics since the halfpipe sport debuted in 1998?)

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