Comment Text:
Hi,
I've been a user of Kalshi for a few years ever since it became legal to use in the United States. It doesn't matter how these companies dress it up, calling what they do "event contracts" or "prediction markets". The real truth is that it's simply gambling.
Many of my peers have fallen into addiction, gambling on things they have no control over and have no special insight into, like the weather and if it's going to rain in a city they don't even live in.
In states like California, where sports betting is illegal, these prediction markets get around legal regulations by claiming to be event contracts. They are short-circuiting federalism and our democratic process by appealing straight to the federal government for regulation.
If they are going to do that, it's important that they are adequately regulated by the federal government. I believe that prediction markets have no place in this society. Not everything in our lives should be something we can gamble on. There is a reason we don't have legalized gambling for all things in all spheres of life, and we shouldn't start allowing that using a regulatory loophole.
If these products want to exist, they should go through the legislative process and should be banned until then.
