Kalshi: The exploitation of financial desperation
Photo courtesy of Kalshi Inc./Wikimedia Commons
Kalshi is the latest in a long list of websites with the only purpose of tricking people out of their money with the promise of making cash back.
If you have been on YouTube recently, you may have seen some peculiar advertisements composed of fully AI-created individuals encouraging you to “trade on anything” via a service called Kalshi.
Kalshi is a betting website founded by Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara that states you can purchase “Yes or No” positions on whether an event will happen or not. According to the website, “Kalshi’s vision is to allow people to capitalize on their opinions, trade in the domain of every day, and hedge risks that relate to them.”
Mansour and Lara founded this initiative together at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2018, and, over the course of the last seven years, have worked to create the website seen today. Through various legal processes and lawsuits, it has been determined that through Kalshi that individuals can bet on anything from “How long will the government shutdown last?” to “Will a new [insert game franchise title here] be released?” to the outcomes of sports games. Together, this creates an environment where the consumer can bet on anything their heart desires, but, in turn, creates a platform for severe financial risk just for the sake of risk.
It is my opinion that Kalshi is just one of the most recently spotlighted in a growing list of betting organizations hoping to profit off of the naivety of the financially insecure consumer, yearning to make a quick buck in any way they can regardless of age. This app and many like it appeal to a wide-ranging audience: those 18 years and older in most circumstances looking to make a supplemental profit. It is instant stimulation and usually evokes similar feelings of immediate gratification. As their website describes, Kalshi hopes to create “A world where the first thing you think about when you have an opinion about the future is to capitalize on it. A world where all risks are hedged. A world where we have taken control of the future, and have made it less uncertain.”
The issue with this app and similar betting services like Fanduel is their ties to daily life, advertising themselves as a supplemental service to enhance specific experiences like sports games or political elections. These services, through their widespread advertisement and overly positive exterior, present a reality to the average consumer where they feel they cannot lose; it creates compulsive gambling in a different font—for lack of a better term. You are drawn in through small winnings and glued to the idea of continued profit, no matter how much you lose to accomplish it.
These new avenues for gambling are rampant and unabashed. Websites and organizations like Kalshi exist to profit off of one's naivety in their opinion. By broadening the field—the outcomes one can gamble on—these sites reinforce the idea that betting is a normal, regular activity that cannot have adverse or detrimental consequences, and promote messaging that betting on anything is not out of the norm; it is “strategic” and “capitalizing” on our contemporary moment. Regardless of how you phrase it, these sites are preying on your naivety and gullibility to make a profit, and their recent influx of advertisements show that they are in fact succeeding, making enough money to expand their outreach through multiple short videos.
Your future does not lie in betting apps, nor should you accept that possibility. These apps are not a way for you to capitalize on the present moment; these apps are designed to shackle you to your current financial situation, enticing you along with the idea of making a return on your investments into its betting software. It is beyond important to note that the potential gain from these apps is nothing compared to what you will lose in the process. Protect yourself and your assets and refuse to take part in practices meant to prey on your pride.