Another Electoral Finance loophole?

This isn’t aimed at the NZ Electoral Finance Act specifically, but Tyler Cowan at Marginal Revolution looks at if one can use prediction markets or insurance as bribery:

What would happen if some famous rich person walked into a presidential prediction market and said: “Hello, I’m selling shorts for candidate A, to the value of a hundred million dollars if he should win. I’m not doing this because I don’t believe candidate A will win, indeed, I want her to win. I hope everyone who can help candidate A win, by campaigning, talking to friends, or even just voting, will buy a short from me (I’m practically giving them away!) and go out and do it with a healthy economic self-interest in their hearts!”

On the subject of electoral finance, Bryce Edwards had another useful post, and also mentioned in a column in the Listener on the issue. In his post Edwards looks at the apparent double standard over political party websites and the closed down Don’t Vote Labour site.