Sports are one of the most critical parts of our society, whether you are just watching your favorite team or rooting against your rival, sports are where it happens. However, for young adults aged 21+, gambling is an added incentive to watching sports, but now with breakthrough prediction apps like Kalshi, kids, as soon as they turn 18 can put real money on professional sports and other games.
There is a grey area between casino gambling, and predicting. With both having the potential to be the catalyst of severe debt, assistant football coach Luke Davey is very passionate towards the issue.
“It’s one thing to allow students to gamble fake money on casino games for fun with no consequences,” Davey said. “But when kids can gamble real money, it’s really dangerous because they might lose it all and impact their lives going into college.”
According to Commercial Litigation Update, Kalshi, being federally run and funded, allows students who are only 18 to sign legal contracts and begin to place bets. Many states have attempted to raise the bar to the normal 21 years of age, but due to Kalshi being federally run, it overrides state laws. Grady Deenik ’26 has seen a significant increase in users across the school.
“It seems like as soon as people turn 18, they start to gamble, especially on Kalshi,” Deenik said. “I just think it makes each game more exciting to watch, which is why it’s so popular for us. I think it’s fine to be used as long as you watch how much you bet on each game and can afford to lose whatever you bet.”
Most students don’t see the negatives of betting on sports until they lose too much money. According to the Sienna Research Center, about 48 percent of young gamblers feel ashamed following their bets. Andrew Strong ’26 thinks that the laws put in place for 21-year-olds allow people to be in a stable financial situation and prevent big losses.
“I feel like the age to gamble is pushed back to 21 because they don’t want kids as soon as they turn 18 to just spend all their savings before going to college,” Strong said. “Instead, they want to have kids spend a few years and gain responsibility, to then not go out and lose a life-changing amount of money.”
