‘We have a gambling epidemic’: WA AG explains why the state is trying to ban Kalshi and other predictive markets

Last month, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown filed a lawsuit against Kalshi, an online prediction market platform, alleging that it actively circumvents state gambling laws to allow users to place “prediction wagers” on sports, elections, entertainment awards, and other events.

Brown is alleging that Kalshi, and other similar platforms like Robinhood and Polymarket, is essentially gambling despite being dubbed as a “predictive market.”

“I don’t know the origin story of Kalshi. I do know that the president’s son serves on their board, which raises all sorts of issues in and of itself,” Brown said on “The Gee and Ursula Show.” “Now that they’ve expanded it to everything, I think part of it is a larger conversation about America and the types of things we’d like to wager on. But my job, first and foremost, is to enforce Washington state law. And this is pretty simple. You go online, you bet on the outcome of something. If you are correct in your bet, you win money. To me, that’s gambling.”

The range of wagers that Kalshi allows its users to place money on within its market is overwhelming in volume, ranging from prop bets within a presidential State of the Union (including the amount of claps a politican makes, the length of a certain handshake, or if a certain speaker drinks water during a speech), to traffic wagers (including the amount of cars passing through a green light on a busy street), to items like the total number of measles cases in a year.

“I do think we have a gambling epidemic,” Brown said. “I’ve gambled in the past. I like to gamble from time to time, but I recognize the dangers of gambling like anything else that can be addictive. Like drinking, like smoking, like anything else, people right now are addicted to being online, addicted to their phones. We see their brain chemistry change, particularly for young people.”

Kalshi continues to experience massive growth, as weekly trading volumes average between $1 billion and $2 billion.

What will be the impact of banning Kalshi?

“What is the message to those who do like this?” Gee asked Brown. “Because there are 155,000 people who use this app on a consistent basis all the time, right? What do you say to the people who are like, ‘Hey, I’m a grown-up. Hey, I should be able to do this on my own. I’m an adult. I can do this.'”

“I understand that, and I respect that, but we as a state have decided to regulate gambling in this way,” Brown answered. “Again, it’s in our state constitution. People’s voices are expressed through their elected representatives, who continue to have a tightly regulated market. And that is the fact on the ground here in Washington state.

“There are all sorts of things that people like to do that we regulate,” Brown continued. “There are a lot of people who like to do a lot of drugs. We regulate that, right? A lot of people say, ‘Hey, I want to drink and drive.’ We regulate that, right? We, as a society, do put rules on all sorts of human behavior, understanding that we still want to give people the freedom and the liberty to do things that they enjoy.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.