The editor
Barry Healy edits PollBet & is responsible for every story, every headline & every correction. He reads the reporting desk's cards through the day, approves or kills each one & answers for what is published.
Where the stories come from
PollBet reports from the record, not from other people's reporting. Every hour, the desk reads the exchanges' market pages, the CFTC & the federal dockets below & picks up any new notice, ruling, filing or statement. Three times a day it also reads the betting trade press & the wider news feeds. A story that starts from a primary record links to that record.
Market pages
- Kalshi market pages & price history
- Polymarket market pages & price history
- PredictIt market pages & price history
Regulators
- CFTC releases, orders & rulemaking (prediction markets)
- State gaming regulators named in the stories
Courts
- The federal dockets & opinions (CourtListener): the cases over who regulates event contracts
Company statements
- The exchanges' own announcements & filings
What the AI does
PollBet runs a reporting engine built on Claude models from Anthropic. For a news report it:
- reads the source text & scores each candidate story for emotion, demand, shareability, fit, sourceability & risk;
- writes the first draft in the PollBet style: the hit, why it matters, the record & what happens next, with every fact taken from the source text;
- checks that draft against the source text line by line & flags any number, name, date or quote it cannot support, any private individual named & any claim stated as proven when the source says alleged;
- renders the story card. Where an illustration background is AI-generated it shows no real people & is recorded as AI-generated in the image rights on the story.
The engine learns from the editor's decisions. Stories he approves & stories he kills tilt how the next candidates are scored, & readership tilts them again. The six criteria still decide; the loop only leans them towards what readers & the editor have shown they value.
What only a person decides
Most stories are read & approved by the editor before publication. A story can publish after a review window without a tap only when it has passed every check, concerns a public company or a public figure, is fully documented & names no private individual; the editor can stop it at any point in that window & is told when it goes out. Anything alleged, anything in live litigation against a private party, anything touching a private individual, minors or self-harm always waits for the editor. Investigations are written by people.
AI output is never a source. A generated illustration is never presented as documentary evidence. The engine cannot place a bet, does not give betting advice & is not allowed to write "sure thing", "guaranteed" or "can't lose".
Dates, updates & corrections
Every story carries its publication time & shows an updated or corrected time when it changes. A correction is added to the story as a dated note, appears in the story's structured data & is listed on Corrections & updates. We do not silently rewrite the substance of a story. Send the page & the supporting information to contact.
Money
Advertising & paid partner content are labelled. Payment cannot buy a story, change a finding or remove one. The full rules are in the editorial policy. PollBet is information only: it does not accept bets & is for readers aged 18 or over.