CNN says 18-to-21 traders put $5.4 billion on Kalshi

Young adults aged 18 to 21 have traded an estimated $5.4 billion on Kalshi so far this year. About $3.9 billion of that came from sports and parlay contracts, and those categories account for roughly 80% of Kalshi’s overall volume.

According to CNN, a Kalshi spokesperson said users in that age band made up 3.14% of total trading volume, but declined to give exact figures for spending or trading. The company has previously pointed to safeguards including deposit limits and warnings sent to users whose behavior looks risky, and it has given $2 million to the National Council for Problem Gambling.

The numbers sit at the centre of a wider dispute over whether prediction markets should remain open to 18-year-olds. Because they are regulated federally as financial markets, they can accept adults from 18, unlike most state-regulated casinos and sportsbooks, where the minimum age is 21.

Lawmakers, consumer advocates and addiction experts have increasingly called that age gap a loophole, warning that it could harm younger adults’ finances and mental health. The federal arrangement is also being challenged in court, with support from 44 state attorneys general, dozens of Indian tribes and the casino industry.

The American Gaming Association has used Kalshi’s trading figures to argue that sports event contracts on prediction sites amount to unlicensed sportsbooks. Bill Miller, the association’s president, told CNN that many parents and grandparents do not realise prediction markets offer a backdoor into sports betting in places where the legal age is 21.

The industry is divided. Fanatics launched a 21-plus prediction platform last year, and Novig secured CFTC approval in June and launched this month with a 21-plus policy. The NCAA, NFL, NBA and PGA Tour urged the CFTC to raise the minimum age to 21, but the agency rejected those calls and is finalizing federal rules that keep the 18-plus framework intact.

Kalshi remains the dominant platform in the sector. According to publicly available Paradigm data, it had taken in more than $173 billion in overall trading volume so far this year, while analysts earlier this year estimated it controlled about 90% of the U.S. prediction market.