Prediction markets turn teens into customers through memes

prediction markets – Prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket—and sports wagering apps that look more like games than finance—are increasingly reaching people as young as 18. Lawmakers say the marketing feels like a gold rush aimed at minors, while researchers point

When Rory McIlroy won the Masters for the second year in a row. Kalshi posted a photo of him on Instagram with the words. “Wait he’s goated.” Not far behind. Polymarket shared a different kind of sports clip: a video of NBA player Damian Lillard recovering from an injury paired with the line. “The league is cooked.”.

For people who don’t live inside sports-and-memes culture, the messages can look like jokes. For regulators and addiction experts, they’re something else: signals that prediction market platforms and sports wagering apps are learning how to pull in younger audiences—fast.

Prediction markets let users put money on the outcomes of real-world events. or on absurd questions like when the U.S. will confirm that aliens exist, or whether Jesus Christ will return before 2027. Kalshi, Polymarket and some sports wagering platforms are available to users starting at 18. That mirrors the minimum age requirement for investing in the stock market. but it’s younger than the age limit of 21 for gambling in most U.S. states.

Experts say that three-year window matters. Teens and young adults are more vulnerable to developing problematic gambling behavior and addiction than older adults. according to some researchers. Dr. Timothy Fong. an addiction psychiatrist and co-director of the UCLA Gambling Studies Program. warned that the “velocity of gambling” paired with “frictionless” access creates a dangerous slope for young people.

“The adults in the room are not taking the fact this is meant to be an adult activity seriously, so when adults don’t take it seriously, why would the kids?” Fong said.

Last week, Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., introduced legislation with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Con., that would bar social media companies and advertisers from showing sports betting ads to minors. Blumenthal said sportsbooks and prediction markets are “treating young people like a gold rush. flooding the internet with advertisements and promotions to hook them on gambling when they’re young.”.

The tension isn’t only about what’s being offered—it’s about how aggressively it’s being packaged.

A founder who helps brands market with memes says the approach is deliberate. Jason Levin, founder of Memelord Technologies, said his company provides meme templates that he says both Polymarket and Kalshi have used.

“If you want to attract a younger audience, you’re going to use memes. You’re going to use unhinged humor,” Levin said. “You’re going to try to get in front of them by any means necessary.”

In one Polymarket ad on Meta’s social media platforms. an influencer hangs off a hot air balloon before letting go and plummeting. Another from Kalshi shows chimpanzees wearing suits in party settings. Fliff—a free-to-play platform that calls itself a “social sportsbook”—uses a meme template of a car dashing to make an exit on the highway. Ads for these platforms also appear on mobile games and in several other places online. where they can reach young people.

Kalshi spokesperson Jack Such told The Associated Press that memes are “just a part of corporate branding nowadays” and that their usage isn’t necessarily tied to the age of potential viewers. Such said the average age of a Kalshi user is 33. Polymarket declined to comment.

The concern deepens when the focus shifts from marketing to outcomes.

Recent academic research looking at 588 million trades on Polymarket found that profits were concentrated to a very small group of top traders. while the majority of users—69%—lost money. And while prediction markets try to distinguish themselves from gambling by emphasizing that users aren’t placing bets but making predictions about probable event outcomes. the platforms still operate in a regulatory gray space that can collide with age rules and youth vulnerability.

Kalshi, Polymarket and other prediction platforms are regulated by the federal government via the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which means they are not subject to state-level restrictions or bans in place for traditional gambling and sports betting, including higher age limits.

Even some sports wagering apps are open to users starting at 18. Fliff doesn’t require users to pay to participate, and it emphasizes entertainment value instead. Many of these platforms operate on a sweepstakes-based model, making them accessible to users 18 and older in many U.S. states. Users are not technically required to pay to use these platforms. but they may be incentivized to do so if they want to see a real-money payout.

Stephen Findeisen, a YouTuber with more than 4 million subscribers who investigates internet scams and goes by Coffeezilla online, said the business logic for courting younger users is rooted in building loyal customers.

“If you’re one of these platforms, you are incentivized to try to target them as soon as you can get them as a customer, so you can be the first kind of business they engage with in that space,” Findeisen said.

He also said many platforms offer a low monetary entry point—framing it as a way to “lower the friction of getting involved,” because “the hardest wager to get is the first wager.”

For young people, the stakes can be personal. Paris Woods. an author and financial educator. said that around age 18 is the most important time to start becoming financially stable and building long-term wealth. But gambling and trading on prediction markets can create a “cycle of addiction and debt.”.

“It’s not just eroding the present and sort of taking their hard-earned money out of their hands at 18 or 19, but it’s actually taking money out of that 40 or 50-year-old version of themselves,” Woods said.

Some platforms also borrow from video games to keep users hooked.

Risky financial behaviors like sports wagering are reinforced by the rush of a win—or simply by the fact that it’s fun. Gamified features such as leaderboards. challenges and rewards. and other video game-like tools are built into some sports wagering platforms. and they keep people on platforms longer and more intensely engaged. game designer and author Adrian Hon said.

“They tighten the loop of setting a bet and getting the feedback,” Hon said. “And so it does make it more visceral. It makes it more exciting. It makes it more real-time.”

Fliff, for instance, is designed with bright colors and engaging art. Users can customize an avatar, represent themselves, and write a bio on their account page where their statistics are displayed. They can gain followers, chat with others, move up the leaderboard and earn achievement badges.

In a statement, Fliff said it provides a “fun, social and rewarding experience” for users to compete in free-to-play games, while also “taking measures to ensure this activity is done responsibly.” The company said the average age of a user who makes a purchase is 26.

Fliff also said its “social gaming experience” includes many “no-cost avenues for users to participate in predictions and engage in friendly competition,” and that its in-app social features are similar to those that exist more broadly within many consumer applications.

Kalshi and Polymarket each have leaderboards and comment sections where users can interact through text and even GIFs. Such said those functions help users make trades with as much information as possible and called them “core elements” of the platform. He said Kalshi has rejected proposals to add more gamified features like confetti appearing on screen when a user confirms a trade.

Kalshi has also put in safeguards aimed at preventing kids from accessing the platform, including asking some new users for a live selfie before they are approved for an account and using facial recognition when signing in.

For Fong, the pattern is still clear. Wagering platforms and prediction markets expose young users to “highly stimulating, highly novel, highly intense things,” he said.

“A young brain that’s not fully formed — that’s going to leave a significant mark,” Fong said. “And that brain is going to want it again.”

Analytical research on Polymarket’s 588 million trades. the age thresholds of 18 versus 21. and the push to bring the experience into meme culture all point in the same direction: these platforms are meeting a vulnerable stage of development with tools designed to pull in attention. rewards and habit. For lawmakers trying to curb the marketing before it reaches minors. the fight is no longer theoretical—it’s about who gets targeted. and how early.

prediction markets Kalshi Polymarket sports betting apps teen gambling social sportsbook Fliff Commodity Futures Trading Commission UCLA Gambling Studies Program Katie Britt Richard Blumenthal memes gamification