Young adults 18-21 traded $5.4 billion on Kalshi this year
Young adults aged 18 to 21 traded an estimated $5.4 billion on Kalshi this year, according to CNN analyses. The CFTC-regulated prediction market platform allows users as young as 18, while most state-licensed sportsbooks require customers to be 21. Critics warn this creates a loophole that lets teenagers wager on sports outcomes through event contracts. Novig and Fanatics have voluntarily set their own age floor at 21 despite permissive federal rules. Nevada has moved to block event contracts entirely unless Kalshi complies with state gaming law.
The volume makes underage wagering a political target at the worst possible moment. Nevada and Connecticut are already suing Kalshi to force state gambling compliance, and the Ninth Circuit just ruled its sports contracts are bets, not swaps. A federal license no longer blocks state enforcement. Every billion dollars in youth volume gives attorneys general fresh headlines to cite in court.
Kalshi must now choose: raise its age floor voluntarily and forfeit a growing demographic, or fight state by state as legal bills compound. Rivals Novig and Fanatics chose 21 to avoid exactly this trap. Congress watches too; the Schiff-Curtis bill could ban sports event contracts outright. Traders aged 18-21 hold positions whose legality may shift beneath them before any contract settles.