Kalshi CEO Insists Having Money Riding On Brewers To Win Is Not Gambling

The CEO of Kalshi insists that putting money on the Milwaukee Brewers to win the World Series isn’t gambling, but rather it’s simply participating in a market.

Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal defending his company against claims that the emerging prediction markets are a form of gambling. Mansour suggested placing money on the Brewers to win the World Series using Kalshi was not actually sports betting, but rather participation in an open marketplace.

“What’s the difference between a sportsbook customer gambling on the Milwaukee Brewers and a Kalshi trader buying a contract on the same result? Both get money if the Brewers win and lose it if they lose. It walks like a bet and quacks like a bet. But we at Kalshi operate a market, not a casino,” Mansour wrote.

Mansour claimed the difference was in the structure. In a traditional sportsbook, the house sets odds and bets against their customers, Mansour claimed. At Kalshi, customers swap contracts in the free marketplace, and Kalshi rakes in a fee.

“Exchanges create incentives for finding the truth, using market forces to burn away bias, while sportsbooks punish knowledge,” Mansour said, arguing for the instrumental value of his platform.

“A bar owner in Los Angeles used event contracts on Kalshi to pay out if the Dodgers failed to advance. Few hedge risk by putting a sportsbook bet on their profit-and-loss statements,” Mansour said.

What happens in prediction markets is speculating, not gambling, Mansour claimed.

“Speculating on sports might be more fun and popular than speculating on interest rates or grain prices, but it isn’t different in kind,” the Kalshi CEO said.

“This isn’t to say that markets shouldn’t be regulated. They must be—by market regulators trained to root out insider trading, wash trading and market manipulation,” Mansour concluded.