Kalshi's leadership says casinos and sports books are the real force behind state efforts to ban or restrict prediction markets, not concerns about customer harm.

• Casino companies reportedly pushed back against Kalshi sponsoring an event at an MGM venue in Las Vegas, showing how directly the industry is fighting the company.
• Kalshi says sports books make more money the longer a losing customer keeps betting, while on a prediction market a loser's money just goes to another trader, so the company has less incentive to keep people hooked.
• DraftKings and FanDuel executives have said prediction markets have taken less than 1% of their business, undercutting the industry's claim that this is really about consumer protection.
• Kalshi argues it's building a broader financial exchange, not a betting product, pointing to deals with the NBA, MLB, NHL, and S&P, and a case where a farmer used it to hedge a business risk and got paid out.
• The company says it screens for insider trading and already referred former congressman George Santos for manipulating a market tied to him, fining him more than he made.

Outlook: Expect the legal and lobbying fight between casinos, state regulators, and prediction-market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket to keep escalating as the industry grows.