from Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim :-)
While I am no expert on financial markets, how does tweeting encourage "insider information" in regards to gambling. If anything, it would reveal more information, making insider trading more difficult. Unless of course, the cheating player thought we would think that, in which case he would say he was injured when he wasn't. But they also might realize we would suspect them of doing so, so then he would clearly tell the truth. This feels like a scene from either "The Princess Bride" or "Pirates of the Caribbean". In any case, do any of think relevant information that might be used to encourage or discourage gambling is actually revealed in tweets? Even if tweets revealed insider information, with enough insider trading it would driving the people taking the bets out of business hence no more gambling. I also maintain that if people were really honest in their tweets, they would type "I am write this while sitting bored on the john."
-- Benjamin Hansen, Ph.D., of Columbia, Md.
• Inconceivable! Indirectly, you are restating one of my points about gambling: you are a fool to bet on tennis, not because there's match fixing, but because there's so much asymmetrical information. If you happen to be at a tournament, you're armed with superior information to the guy home on his laptop. If you happen to have "behind-the-scenes access," you have still better information. If you happen to subscribe to player X's Twitter feed, you might be privy to additional information. ("At Delta counter making reservation because no way I win tomorrow." "I am about to pop this Lidocaine tablet.")
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/jon_wertheim/11/25/mailbag/index.html#ixzz0YM6eocST