The Atlantic launches Over/Under newsletter tracking prediction markets and gambling culture
The Atlantic has launched Over/Under, a newsletter covering prediction markets, gambling, and the culture of risk in America. The inaugural edition names Kalshi and Polymarket as featured platforms. The launch follows broader media attention to the sector, including an Indiana Capital Chronicle piece that used Kalshi odds on the Indiana secretary of state's race to question whether prediction markets constitute forecasting or gambling.
Mainstream publications are now treating prediction markets as a cultural beat worth dedicated coverage, which shifts how millions of readers encounter Kalshi and Polymarket. Kalshi especially, the framing matters: it holds CFTC registration and wants to be seen as a financial exchange, not a gambling outlet. Atlantic subscribers learn about event contracts through a newsletter that sits prediction markets alongside casino culture, Kalshi's regulatory distinction fades in the public mind.
Polymarket faces its own version of the same risk, with its offshore international site often conflated with its regulated U.S. venue. The platforms' $3 million statehouse defense campaign depends on convincing lawmakers that voters see them as information tools, not betting shops. Each new publication that adopts the gambling-framed lens makes that lobbying job harder. The editorial momentum also gives state attorneys general in Ohio, Tennessee, and elsewhere ready-made quotes for their next filings.
Joins a string of recent opinion and media examinations of prediction markets that have surfaced alongside the Reuters/Ipsos finding that 60% of Americans oppose election betting, with each new voice giving state attorneys general additional cover to treat event contracts as gambling.