{"id":3522,"date":"2026-06-24T07:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T07:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=3522"},"modified":"2026-06-24T07:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T07:38:07","slug":"before-kalshi-and-polymarket-there-was-the-iowa-electronic-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=3522","title":{"rendered":"Before Kalshi and Polymarket there was the Iowa Electronic Markets"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Prediction markets aren&#8217;t new. Election betting was common until the 1940s, then mysteriously faded away.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=3520\">How stock options made him an overnight millionaire<\/a><\/p>\n<p>There was an entire political era when party bosses were expected to conspicuously gamble on their candidates (even if they secretly hedged).<\/p>\n<p>And in the 1980s, a few economists designed an election market that beat out election polling 74 percent of the time.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=3518\">Archaeologists find huge Viking textile production site in Denmark<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Today, we&#8217;re running an excerpt from our friends at , NPR&#8217;s excellent history podcast. <u>Subscribe right now if you don&#8217;t already<\/u>. And, listen to<u> their extended version of the episode<\/u> to hear about the early markets for betting on terrorism and military uses of prediction markets.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=3514\">Appeals court allows Trump administration expanded use of speedy deportations<\/a><\/p>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<p>Planet MoneyThroughline<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prediction markets aren\u2019t new. Election betting was common until the 1940s, then mysteriously faded away.<\/p>\n<p>There was an entire political era when party bosses were expected to conspicuously gamble on their candidates (even if they secretly hedged).<\/p>\n<p>And in the 1980s, a few economists designed an election market that beat out election polling 74 percent of the time.<\/p>\n<p>Today, we\u2019re running an excerpt from our friends at <em>Throughline<\/em>, NPR\u2019s excellent history podcast. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/podcasts\/510333\/throughline\"target=\"_blank\"   >Subscribe right now if you don\u2019t already<\/a>. And, listen to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/05\/21\/nx-s1-5828906\/prediction-markets-are-making-a-150-year-comeback\"target=\"_blank\"   > their extended version of the episode<\/a> to hear about the early markets for betting on terrorism and military uses of prediction markets.<\/p>\n<p><em>Support:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul class=\"rte2-style-ul\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-inline-start:48px;\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/n.pr\/3HlREPz\"target=\"_blank\"   ><em>NPR+<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Read:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<ul class=\"rte2-style-ul\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-inline-start:48px;\">\n<li><em>Our book: <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/lnk.to\/i3AukBdD\"target=\"_blank\"   ><em>Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"rte2-style-ul\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-inline-start:48px;\">\n<li><em>Our weekly longform <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/n.pr\/3zrFvUB\"target=\"_blank\"   ><em>Planet Money newsletter<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><em>Our weekly <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/newsletter\/indicator\"target=\"_blank\"   ><em>Indicator round-up newsletter<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Follow:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<ul class=\"rte2-style-ul\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-inline-start:48px;\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/n.pr\/3FqLuws\"target=\"_blank\"   ><em>Instagram<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/n.pr\/3sGZdrq\"target=\"_blank\"   ><em>TikTok<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/lnk.to\/iCVDaW3C\"target=\"_blank\"   ><em>YouTube<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/n.pr\/3h92GwS\"target=\"_blank\"   ><em>Facebook<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Today&#8217;s episode was produced for <\/em>Planet Money<em> by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, edited by Alex Goldmark, and engineered by Maggie Luthar. The original <\/em>Throughline<em> episode was produced by Rund Abdelfatah, Casey Miner, Cristina Kim, Devin Katayama, Sarah Wyman, Julia Redpath, and Kyana Moghadam.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-planet-money"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Before Kalshi and Polymarket there was the Iowa Electronic Markets - Best USA Movers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=3522\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Before Kalshi and Polymarket there was the Iowa Electronic Markets - Best USA Movers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Prediction markets aren\u2019t new. Election betting was common until the 1940s, then mysteriously faded away.There was an entire political era when party bosses were expected to conspicuously gamble on their candidates (even if they secretly hedged).And in the 1980s, a few economists designed an election market that beat out election polling 74 percent of the time.Today, we\u2019re running an excerpt from our friends at Throughline, NPR\u2019s excellent history podcast. Subscribe right now if you don\u2019t already. And, listen to their extended version of the episode to hear about the early markets for betting on terrorism and military uses of prediction markets.Support:NPR+Read:\u00a0Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life\u00a0Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletterOur weekly Indicator round-up newsletterFollow:\u00a0InstagramTikTokYouTubeFacebookToday&#039;s episode was produced for Planet Money by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, edited by Alex Goldmark, and engineered by Maggie Luthar. The original Throughline episode was produced by Rund Abdelfatah, Casey Miner, Cristina Kim, Devin Katayama, Sarah Wyman, Julia Redpath, and Kyana Moghadam.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=3522\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Best USA Movers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-24T07:38:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bestusamoverss.com\\\/?p=3522#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bestusamoverss.com\\\/?p=3522\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bestusamoverss.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3f4fef4452a41b72c331a70422221f40\"},\"headline\":\"Before Kalshi and Polymarket there was the Iowa Electronic Markets\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-24T07:38:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bestusamoverss.com\\\/?p=3522\"},\"wordCount\":151,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bestusamoverss.com\\\/?p=3522#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bestusamoverss.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/fdf4c9cd0acc359e3e86585d74ecf990-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Planet Money\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/bestusamoverss.com\\\/?p=3522#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bestusamoverss.com\\\/?p=3522\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bestusamoverss.com\\\/?p=3522\",\"name\":\"Before Kalshi and Polymarket there was the Iowa Electronic Markets - 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Election betting was common until the 1940s, then mysteriously faded away.There was an entire political era when party bosses were expected to conspicuously gamble on their candidates (even if they secretly hedged).And in the 1980s, a few economists designed an election market that beat out election polling 74 percent of the time.Today, we\u2019re running an excerpt from our friends at Throughline, NPR\u2019s excellent history podcast. Subscribe right now if you don\u2019t already. And, listen to their extended version of the episode to hear about the early markets for betting on terrorism and military uses of prediction markets.Support:NPR+Read:\u00a0Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life\u00a0Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletterOur weekly Indicator round-up newsletterFollow:\u00a0InstagramTikTokYouTubeFacebookToday's episode was produced for Planet Money by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, edited by Alex Goldmark, and engineered by Maggie Luthar. The original Throughline episode was produced by Rund Abdelfatah, Casey Miner, Cristina Kim, Devin Katayama, Sarah Wyman, Julia Redpath, and Kyana Moghadam.\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=3522","og_site_name":"Best USA Movers","article_published_time":"2026-06-24T07:38:07+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=3522#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=3522"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3f4fef4452a41b72c331a70422221f40"},"headline":"Before Kalshi and Polymarket there was the Iowa Electronic Markets","datePublished":"2026-06-24T07:38:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=3522"},"wordCount":151,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=3522#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/fdf4c9cd0acc359e3e86585d74ecf990-scaled.jpg","articleSection":["Planet Money"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=3522#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=3522","url":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=3522","name":"Before Kalshi and Polymarket there was the Iowa Electronic Markets - 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