Utahns no longer have to go down to Nevada for a quick weekend of gambling.
According to gambling expert Jonathan D Cohen, author of Losing Big: America’s Wreckless Bet on Sports Betting, Kalshi, a New York-based federally regulated company within the growing prediction market industry, began including sports as part of the real world events their users can “bet” on earlier this year and has only recently begun rapidly growing during the beginning of the NFL season.
Although Utah’s constitution expressly prohibits any kinds of gambling, Kalshi is able to circumvent these prohibitions by enabling Utahns to use the company’s app or website to wager on sports game results, among other things, from the comfort of their own homes.
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In an interview with ABC4 on Friday, Cohen stated, “People in Utah can effectively gamble on sports through what is basically the backdoor grey market of prediction markets, which are technically investment platforms, which is why they are legal in all 50 states.” “Prediction markets are ostensibly a way to wager on anything. You can wager on sales of Taylor Swift albums, gas prices, temperature, and elections, which is kind of how they got their start.”
Getting around the law
To put things in perspective, well-known gambling services like FanDuel and Draft Kings require a state license to operate in the state, whereas Kalshi works under the federal government’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission and does not yet require state approval to do so.
Users have been able to “predict” the results of sporting events on Kalshi since March.
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