I bet on stuff almost every day, but I don’t see your line of argument that unless somebody bets, they can’t argue with you.
It means they’re all talk & no action. Talk is cheap, and they are even cheaper because they don’t put their money where their mouth is. Why should we listen to such people?
When doubters actually do put up, the interaction starts to become quite meaningful. Cold Fusion is emerging from the shadows and these naysayers are a bunch of whiners who don’t like it but they won’t put their own money down to back up their words. Soon they’ll all be retreating back under the rocks they came from.