I just noticed that people lost money - even when betting on the right side!
http://bitbet.us/bet/7/bfl-will-deliver-asic-devices-before-march-1st/Have a look:
E.g. this guy placed 50 BTC on "No" (which was the correct outcome of the bet):
21-02-13 15:50 No 710
50.00000000 146mo
49.93600046 1FRBb
But instead of receiving something like 100 BTC (50+50) he did not even make his wager back!
Is bitbet.us buggy?
Not a bug but a feature as they say.
Specifically: BitBet bets have a weight associated with them, which weight starts at 100,000 and in most cases goes all the way down to 1. This weight reflects the lateness of the bet, as obviously a Bitcoin bet in January doesn't take the same level of risk as a Bitcoin bet in February does. This protects early bettors from having their stake diluted unwarrantedly by people who bet much later - when the likelihood of the event is presumably much easier to infer correctly.
BitBet also takes a 1% fee out of the total pool. Consequently for a bet to show an actual positive it has to gain more than 1%. Due to the even-ish odds and the very low weight the bets in discussion earned less than 1% which turns into a negative end result due to the fee. As a good rule of thumb, if the odds are 1:1 a bet on weight under 1,000 should be avoided as it's unlikely to gain anything. If the odds are 1:2 then that limit becomes 500, and if the odds are 1:100 that limit would be 10.
Not all bets have weights associated, but in most cases those bets which cover a time interval rather than a specific point in time do.
