Let’s start with the two largest and most-important forms of this gambling (and fraud): “interest rate swaps” and “credit default swaps”. What is an interest rate swap? This is a bet between a banker (i.e. the people who control interest rates) and a Chump, on which direction an interest rate will move.
Can anyone see a problem with this form of gambling/fraud? Correct. If you place bets on the direction of interest rates against the criminals who control those interest rates, you’re probably going to lose on those bets, almost all of the time. Is this what we saw in the interest rate swap “market”?
https://www.sprottmoney.com/blog/the-derivatives-market-bets-bookies-and-fraud.html