How Is Kalshi Not Gambling?

Wired · Steven Levy · last updated March 4, 2026 – 1:02 AM

Kalshi lets you place bets on everything from football games to foreign invasions. The prediction market’s CEO, Tarek Mansour, says this doesn’t count as gambling—and is actually good for society.

If you picked Seattle to win Super Bowl LX, there were multiple means to turn your hunch into cash. You could place a wager on a betting site like FanDuel or DraftKings. Or you might risk the same amount of money by taking a position in the prediction market known as Kalshi. In both cases you would have been rewarded.

here today, more tomorrow

We’re launching briefing.center with a focus on the press and media.

And we’re adding Citizen Cartwright, a daily quick-read news summary by veteran Washington journalist Linda Cartwright. (Sign-up for a dedicated morning email is available at Citizencartwright.com.)

We’re readying our first policy briefing.center, on energy and climate. We’d love to hear from you in what our other policy priorities should be.

You can use briefing.center as the center of your information management, or just one of your tools. We’re happy to discuss your connectivity needs.