Needless to say, voters have been inundated with political polls in recent months, all attempting to provide insight into what will happen when Americans go to the polls on Election Day. And while polls have long been the primary tool used to track where voters stand on certain races and issues, a new, non-traditional method of predicting election results has gained popularity: betting.

So far, betting markets have heavily favored former President Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris to win the presidential election. From Monday afternoon, the betting site Kalshi showed Trump getting 55% of bets on his victory and Harris with 45% to be the next president – ​​with more than $200 million bet on the race so far.

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However, those odds are much lower than they were just a week ago, when about 70% of bets were in Trump’s favor. James Powel, a trends reporter for USA Today, highlighted two recent events that he believes could explain Harris’ dramatic change in direction.

“These are the Puerto Rican comments that really came from the Madison Square Garden rally,” Powel told Scripps News. “And then our poll, via the Des Moines Register, showed Harris leading in Iowa.”

The Trump campaign has tried to distance itself from backlash over a crude joke made last week by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who compared Puerto Rico to a country. “Floating garbage island.” And while Powel believes the incident had a negative impact on Trump, he notes that betting markets are no more or less accurate than traditional political polls in predicting the outcome of an election.

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“There are times when Harris was clearly ahead, there are times when Trump is clearly ahead. But those things aren’t perfect either,” Powell explained. “They’re made by humans, they’re made by bets. They’ve failed twice already, including in 2016, when Trump beat then-Secretary of State Clinton, who was a heavy favorite.”

“So these things are not perfect,” he added. “They give us a sense, they give us a sense of momentum. What if, you know, the odds, even last week, swung back in favor of Harris, even though Trump had taken the lead. But they’re not Perfect. I want to make that clear.”

You can watch the full Scripps News interview with USA Today trends desk reporter James Powel in the video player above.