Interesting! But isn't betting is a zero sum game? Betting on apples means some lose and some win, but the world is not better off as a result, because they cancel out.
You're right, I'm just thinking there is some long hedge that keeps the game going, like the transaction fees, where you get demand for transactions that are bets on blocks. The whole thing is a kind of self reinforcing stochastic uncertainty cloud (infinite improbability machine?), where the endogenous demand is never zero. Until it is because of something exogenous. Same as fiat.
Or that is my understanding.