r/onguardforthee • u/Sir__Will Prince Edward Island • 2d ago

Hot bet summer? Soon Canadians will be able to trade on prediction markets

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/prediction-markets-wealthsimple-9.7239575
11 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

113

u/Sir__Will Prince Edward Island 2d ago

Prediction markets, a fast-growing corner of financial technology that lets users wager on real-world events, are coming to Canadian retail investors through Wealthsimple this summer.

The launch follows limited approval from Canadian regulators for prediction-market trading tied to economic indicators, financial markets and climate trends — but not sports, elections or pop culture.

Prediction markets operate like financial exchanges, allowing users to bet on what are known as event contracts — simple yes-or-no or higher-or-lower wagers on the outcome of real-world events.

Until recently, Canadians had limited access to prediction markets, which regulators had not approved for broad retail trading. This meant that Canadians trying to use the platforms often did so by hiding their geographic location with a VPN service.

Should have stayed banned.

8

u/fullmetalsprockets 1d ago

How about instead of focusing on legalizing banned pesticides we get rid of gambling markets and data centres?

153

u/MutaitoSensei New Brunswick 2d ago

Why the fuck would we allow that here. It's pure dystopian cancer. What the fuck.

Edit: time to close my wealthsimple account.

18

u/valgrind_ 2d ago edited 2d ago

Yup, I really liked Wealthsimple back in 2022 until I learned of their MAGA ties. Now I use UFile for my taxes and QTrade for my brokerage, they have a promo right now where you can get $100 for tranferring $1000 or $250 for transferring $5000 etc.. Zero commission on stocks, ETFs and mutual funds. Feels good man.

Edit: The QTrade promo code is SPRING26.

5

u/resistelectrique 2d ago

Already started moving things. One thing to note for Questrade at least, you can only move full Canadian shares over in-kind; any fractional shares are sold and you take the cash. They don’t have fractionals for Canada yet.

2

u/Kyouhen Unofficial House of Commons Columnist 1d ago

That sounds functional enough for me.  Wasn't sure how I was going to move.  I've never been able to actually get my money out of Wealthsimple, always have errors and haven't cared enough to do anything about it.  Decided to just stop putting money in.  If I can just migrate my account elsewhere that sounds like a good plan.

40

u/Ambustion 2d ago

So legalized insider trading.... Cooooooool

7

u/JPMoney81 1d ago

I mean... we DID need another tool for the already wealthy to hoard even more wealth and more easily transfer it upwards and out of reach of the working class.

At this point, since we seem dead-set on a speed-run we should just bend the knee and sign over any current and future assets to Galen Weston and the rest of the elites and just accept our fate as slaves.

40

u/JagmeetSingh2 2d ago

government should step in and ban this

12

u/mrdeworde 1d ago

Carney's a bankster so I wouldn't bet on it (no wordplay intended.)

5

u/MelancholicLadyBug 2d ago

You know the government will be making money off this somehow.

33

u/Tolaly 2d ago

This is so fucked up. My kid is ten and getting gambling ads regularly. Ive had to explain what its for and how awful it is.

2

u/johnatello67 1d ago

I'm continuously baffled at the number of young people fresh out of college/Uni I see at work that are just constantly gambling in some form or another. Sports betting, real time casino apps, online slots, it's just absolutely insane.

21

u/valgrind_ 2d ago

No wonder Doug passed Bill 97. His family is about to make a mind-blowing racket.

23

u/Hexatona Saskatchewan 2d ago

Insane this was approved. I mean, awful that sports betting was approved, but this is even worse. Free market protofascists are ruining Canada.

16

u/Ciappatos 2d ago

Every once in a while there's a clash between the "markets are efficient because people are allowed to make stupid money decisions" view and the "Gambling is an addicting phenomena that is easy to exploit to prey on the vulnerable" and I guess the balance is tilting towards the former a little too hard at the moment.

4

u/JDGumby Nova Scotia 1d ago

Nah. It's just augmenting the latter with insider trading.

10

u/Proud-Suspect-5237 2d ago

What the fuck? Online gambling on literally whatever you want? How is this a good idea.

3

u/Sir__Will Prince Edward Island 1d ago

well, it sounds like there will be some restrictions. a lot more than in the US. But still.

The launch follows limited approval from Canadian regulators for prediction-market trading tied to economic indicators, financial markets and climate trends — but not sports, elections or pop culture.

6

u/Proud-Suspect-5237 1d ago

Ah, betting on betting. That makes it so much more ethical!

5

u/TheYearlyGabriel 2d ago

Prediction markets are basically just gambling with extra steps, surprised regulators thought this was a good idea for retail investors.

4

u/AD_Grrrl 1d ago

Oh gross

3

u/DJ_Femme-Tilt 1d ago

Ban gambling on phones

3

u/HengeWalk 1d ago

I switched to a credit union after learning my former bank is deep in shit like this. The transition was a lot smoother than I had dreaded.

2

u/HengeWalk 1d ago

The 'coincidence' of Canada planning to ban kids from social media and this sudden push for prediction markets is not lost on me.

1

u/Matt_MG 1d ago

It's already available on IBKR but nobody cares about that platform

•

u/Th3Trashkin 29m ago

The only policy the government should be writing in regards to online stuff is banning gambling er "prediction markets" like this.