What is the story about?
When Rory McIlroy won the Masters for the second consecutive year, Kalshi shared an Instagram photo of him captioned, “Wait he’s goated.” Similarly, when
a video of NBA player Damian Lillard recovering from an injury circulated online, Kalshi's competitor Polymarket posted, “The league is cooked.” These posts, along with many others, are drawing younger audiences to prediction market platforms, where users wager money on the outcomes of real-world events, including outlandish scenarios like when the U.S. will confirm the existence of aliens or whether Jesus Christ will return before 2027.
Once users engage with these platforms, companies entice them with what they describe as low-stakes, casual opportunities to earn money, creating an environment that resembles a game more than a risky financial transaction with serious implications. Recent academic research analyzing 588 million trades on Polymarket revealed that profits concentrated among a small group of top traders, while a significant 69% of users lost money.Kalshi, Polymarket, and various sports wagering platforms permit users as young as 18, aligning with the minimum age for stock market investment but lower than the 21-year age limit for gambling in most U.S. states. This age gap is critical, as experts highlight that teens and young adults are more susceptible to developing problematic gambling behaviors and addictions than older individuals.
Dr. Timothy Fong, an addiction psychiatrist and co-director of the UCLA Gambling Studies Program, stated, “The adults in the room are not taking the fact this is meant to be an adult activity seriously, so when adults don’t take it seriously, why would the kids?” He emphasized that the rapid pace of gambling combined with easy access creates a perilous environment for young people.
In response to these concerns, Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., along with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., introduced legislation last week aimed at prohibiting social media companies and advertisers from displaying sports betting advertisements to minors. Blumenthal remarked that sportsbooks and prediction markets are “treating young people like a gold rush, flooding the internet with advertisements and promotions to hook them on gambling when they’re young.”
The humorous, meme-centric strategies employed by prediction markets and sports wagering platforms are not merely aimed at gaining social media popularity; they represent a deliberate effort to connect with younger audiences, according to Jason Levin, founder of Memelord Technologies. His company provides marketing tools, including meme templates that both Polymarket and Kalshi have utilized.
Levin asserted, “If you want to attract a younger audience, you’re going to use memes. You’re going to use unhinged humor. You’re going to try to get in front of them by any means necessary.”
One recent Polymarket advertisement on Meta’s social media platforms features an influencer dangling from a hot air balloon before letting go and falling. Another Kalshi ad depicts chimpanzees dressed in suits at a party. Fliff, a free-to-play platform branded as a “social sportsbook,” employs a popular meme template showcasing a car speeding away on a highway. Ads for these platforms also appear in mobile games and various online spaces frequented by young people.
Kalshi spokesperson Jack Such informed The Associated Press that memes are “just a part of corporate branding nowadays” and their use is not necessarily linked to the age of potential viewers. He noted that the average Kalshi user is 33 years old, while Polymarket chose not to comment.
According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in summer 2025, approximately 30% of American adults under 30 reported placing a sports bet in the past year. Among these, about 20% of individuals under 30, including 21% of men and 16% of women in that age group, indicated they wagered online during that time, a significant increase from just 7% three years prior.
Prediction markets distinguish themselves from gambling by asserting that their users are not betting but predicting the likely outcomes of events. Regulated by the federal government through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, these platforms are exempt from state-level restrictions or bans applicable to traditional gambling and sports betting, including higher age limits.
Some online sports wagering platforms, such as Fliff, also accept users starting at 18, emphasizing entertainment value and not requiring payment to participate. Many of these platforms operate on a sweepstakes-based model, making them accessible to users 18 and older in various U.S. states. Although users are not technically obligated to pay to engage with these platforms, they are often incentivized to do so if they seek real-money payouts.
Stephen Findeisen, a YouTuber known as Coffeezilla, who investigates internet scams, highlighted that targeting young users aims to cultivate loyal, long-term customers. He stated, “If you’re one of these platforms, you are incentivized to try to target them as soon as you can get them as a customer, so you can be the first kind of business they engage with in that space.” Many platforms adopt a low monetary entry point for placing bets or making predictions to reduce barriers to entry, as “the hardest wager to get is the first wager,” he explained.
For young individuals, this approach can lead to significant drawbacks. Financial educator Paris Woods noted that around age 18 is crucial for establishing financial stability and building long-term wealth. However, engaging in gambling and trading on prediction markets can result in a “cycle of addiction and debt.”
Woods remarked, “It’s not just eroding the present and sort of taking their hard-earned money out of their hands at 18 or 19, but it’s actually taking money out of that 40 or 50-year-old version of themselves.”
Risky financial behaviors like sports wagering are reinforced by the thrill of winning or simply the enjoyment of the activity. Some sports wagering platforms incorporate gamified features such as leaderboards, challenges, and rewards, akin to video games, which keep users engaged for longer periods, according to Adrian Hon, a game designer and author of “You’ve Been Played.”
Hon explained, “They tighten the loop of setting a bet and getting the feedback. And so it does make it more visceral. It makes it more exciting. It makes it more real-time.”
Fliff, for example, features bright colors and engaging graphics, allowing users to customize avatars and write bios on their account pages where their statistics are displayed. Users can gain followers, chat with others, ascend the leaderboard, and earn achievement badges. Fliff stated that it offers a “fun, social and rewarding experience” for users competing in free-to-play games while “taking measures to ensure this activity is done responsibly.” The company reported that the average age of users making purchases is 26.
Fliff also highlighted that its “social gaming experience” provides many no-cost avenues for users to participate in predictions and engage in friendly competition, stating, “Our in-app social features are similar to those that exist more broadly within many consumer applications.”
Both Kalshi and Polymarket feature leaderboards and comment sections on their platforms, allowing users to interact through text and GIFs. Such emphasized that these functions enable users to make informed trades and described them as “core elements” of the platform. Kalshi has declined proposals to add more gamified features, such as confetti appearing on screen upon confirming a trade, and has implemented safeguards to prevent minors from accessing the platform. This includes requiring some new users to submit a live selfie for account approval and using facial recognition during sign-in.
Whether intentional or not, wagering platforms and prediction markets expose young users to “highly stimulating, highly novel, highly intense things,” according to Fong from the UCLA Gambling Studies Program, which can have serious consequences.
Fong stated, “A young brain that’s not fully formed — that’s going to leave a significant mark. And that brain is going to want it again.”
