Buffett and Kalshi: Two views of America's gambling boom

Warren Buffett, the recently-retired Berkshire Hathaway chief, is sounding an alarm about America's gambling problem. Per Axios, Buffett told CNBC that speculative trading is undermining long-term investing, and he argues markets have more incentive to cultivate gamblers than create investors. Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are a key part of this shift—they let people bet on asset price movements, largely outside state gaming rules. But Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour offered a counterpoint on Wednesday: traditional markets are rigged against ordinary investors anyway. Prediction markets, he argues, at least offer a fairer edge. The tension: regulators and addiction experts warn the prediction market boom is drawing younger Americans into gambling habits. To address the concerns, Kalshi recently joined the National Council on Problem Gambling and appeared at a Capitol Hill press conference supporting a bipartisan bill requiring facial recognition to verify age before they can bet or trade on these platforms.

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