Not saying it's right or wrong. But it's still gambling (betting on an outcome)
There are forms of gambling which create no positive benefits for the world, but simply create addicts who end up feeding their money to the house due to the house edge, who then simply parasites off these people's lives.
Then there are prediction markets, which have the potential to create a lot of public good.
http://mason.gmu.edu/~rhanson/futarchy.htmlWith Bitshares, with both prediction markets and voting/elected delegates, we have the opportunity to make a grand experiment. We can attempt a new form of government, a decentralized governance system which does not use the power of physical violence to enforce itself, but instead uses the power of math (to run the blockchain to enforce ownership, smart contracts, etc), voting (for trusted delegates), and prediction markets (to determine better solutions to problems). This allows us to solve the very difficult problems of coordinating all humans together for mutual public good.
The prediction market serves the important role of allowing us to aggregate information together in order to determine the truth of beliefs. This provides us with the best information on what plan can best achieve the most benefit for society as a whole. Prediction markets are more accurate than direct voting, as they reward rationality and impose a penalty on incorrect ideas.
This is how Bitshares will change the world, if we succeed. A future governance system which is decentralized, nonviolent, protecting of ownership rights on the blockchain, fairly enforcing smart contracts on the blockchain, enabling the election of trusted representatives in a reputation system, voting on public proposals on the blockchain with no voting fraud, and using prediction markets to find the best solutions to the problems faced by humanity.