Kate Nibbs: So, you went twice?
Makenna Kelly: Yes, Kate. I went twice.
Kate Nibbs: I missed that.
Zoe Schiffer: Wait, is Pentagon Pizza a joke about pizza predicting war?
Makenna Kelly: Yes.
Zoe Schiffer: Oh my god.
Makenna Kelly: Because they had these Pentagon pizza trackers. When I came back the second night, yes, I came back the second night. For the most part everything was working. There were still some screens down, but I never saw any actual Bloomberg terminals. There were some monetary Bloomberg type terminal things that looked like Polymarket had developed themselves, but the actual $50,000 Bloomberg terminal was nowhere to be found. And yes, on the second night, again, most people were just trying to enjoy the event, except I found a few people who had placed some bets on platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi. One’s name was William, and he said he was a member of the military, he wouldn’t tell me his full name. And he got into it for the first time last year, I think, by putting his entire tax return into Oklahoma City sports betting.
Makenna Kelly, archival audio: So, you used Kalashi?
William, archival audio: Yes.
Makenna Kelly, archival audio: When did you first start using this service?
William, archival audio: Probably when I get my tax return back.
Makenna Kelly, archival audio: Ok.
William, archival audio: So, I filed my taxes very early and I said, “Oh, dear. I got my tax return. What am I going to do with it?” So, I was like, “I’m going to put it on the vase.”
Makenna Kelly: He said he keeps moving $100 up and down, but he hasn’t won any big. Some things we’ve heard. Some people are making millions and millions of dollars by making crazy insider bets. It seems like this is just a guy who had an interest in it and plays it just for fun.
Brian Barrett: Kate, what do you see when you see a pop-up like this and Polymarket tries to do this – is this just a marketing stunt as an attempt to legitimize itself? And how does that relate to what you’re seeing with these companies, that they’re having explosive growth trying to reach so many people and so many people being attracted to what they’re offering?
Kate Nibbs: I mean, this particular incident certainly seems like a very poor attempt to lure DC-based journalists, if nothing else. One thing Mckenna said that really crystallizes what’s going on right now is the thing about the people in the Palantir hoodies. So, I think it was the week this bar opened. PolyMarket announced a partnership with Palantir and Palantir is helping them protect the integrity of their sports marketplace. So, Palantir is basically going to try to help PolyMarket catch insider traders and market manipulators in all sports games, which is kind of wild. I actually asked Polymarket last week if they had any other deals with Palantir, when I was trying to get them to say anything about whether they were investigating the Iran stakes, which are getting a lot of controversy. And they said Palantir was only helping them with the game, which I found very strange. And it explains how they’re expanding rapidly, but doing so in this really crappy ad-hoc way doesn’t really make much sense. Because I was like, “If you’re going to involve Palantir, why wouldn’t you let them do this geopolitical stuff instead of March Madness?” Yep, wild, wild times.
<a href