Trading Sites are Predatory

Graphic by Ben Koh

Just a few of years ago, gambling was limited to the casino. Cards were played on cafeteria tables. People participated in friendly March Madness brackets or made weekend bets during football games. The risk wasn’t available on every play. Betting stayed connected to games of luck and never really seeped into daily life.

But last year that boundary vanished. A new form of betting has emerged, driven by prediction markets that connect speculation to real-world events. Platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have become hugely popular in the United States. Just last month, Kalshi’s daily trading market surpassed 27 billion dollars. These sites allow users to trade on elections, court cases, weather outcomes, and geopolitical decisions. Their sleek design, interactive charts, and focus on a productive “stock market esq” trading system is the sites key driving factor.

As a consequence, minors have been increasingly attracted to the platform. Junior William Wu explained the situation, “Being a minor, I cannot legally use Kalshi, as it has an age requirement. However, many of my peers have found workarounds to this and are using Kalshi to bet online even though they are underage.”

  While casinos, sports betting apps, and website blackjack and poker, are completely cutoff from minors, Kalshi has been legalized in all 50 states.

Washington, for example, has sports gambling apps like Prizepicks and Underdog fantasy completely banned under state law for any age group. Because of the ban prediction markets are the only way adults can legally gamble on sports.

Junior Jimin Baek remarks “Because Kalshi is the only thing legal, everyone flocks to bet on games whenever they happen. I’ve seen friends fall into Kalshi’s gambling and it really hurts to see them loose money.”

And these young users aren’t just a result of a sleek design and appealing charts it pushed in the faces of millions every day. According to the NBA during the 2025 finals Kalshi spent millions on advertising farming over 20 million impressions on the finals alone.

Some of which are impressionable young boys, “I see Kalshi and Polymarket adds on nearly every video I click on, even when they aren’t even closely to related to sports or politics. I think they’re actually trying to target teens even though they’ll never admit it” Wu commented.

That has some merit to it, kalshi’s own website reveals their “soft registration” allows users to access markets, see trading prices, and see their “leaderboard” of top preforming traders. To access all of these features all users need is an email and a phone number.

Baek put it best, clearly stating, “You have a website legal in all 50 states constantly pushing ads to a young audience of which can sign up and view how much others are making from gambling. If a casino  minors to view slot machines and leaderboards seeing how much they COULD make they would get flagged immediately. It should be no different if it’s on the web.”

The solution is clear too. Ban soft registration, restrict advertising, and make state trading site policies that actually align with gambling laws across the US.