Mississippi Today Ideas is a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share their ideas about our state’s past, present and future. Opinions expressed in guest essays are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of Mississippi Today. You can read more about the section here.
This month, Mississippi parents will pack their 18-year-olds off to campuses across the state and worry about the usual things – homesickness, roommates and that first shaky attempt at independence.
But there is a new risk many parents don’t know exists. Their child can now place real-money bets on sports from a dorm room, despite Mississippi’s prohibition on online sports gambling.
So-called “prediction markets,” popular platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, let users as young as 18 all across the country gamble on everything from sports to what word might be mentioned at a press conference.
It doesn’t matter what the laws are in Mississippi or any other state. Unlike traditional online sports betting apps, these platforms don’t abide by state age minimums or bans, nor do they provide problem gambling resources to prevent addiction.
Emily Stack Credit: Courtesy photoInstead, these companies insist they are federally regulated financial exchanges – investment tools – not sportsbooks. But for a college freshman with a Venmo balance and a favorite team, the distinction is meaningless. It is sports gambling.
Most parents assume the guardrails are in place. Almost three in four voters in Mississippi believe that prediction markets should be required to follow the same state gaming laws as licensed sportsbooks, according to Morning Consult polling conducted earlier this year.
But prediction markets claim they cannot be regulated by states. Working with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), they argue they are akin to the New York Stock Exchange but for sports. That has opened up sports gambling to anyone as young as 18, including college students in Mississippi even though statewide mobile sports betting remains illegal.
These platforms are also reportedly targeting college campuses with aggressive marketing, sponsoring college clubs and paying student influencers to popularize them with peers. The NCAA has called for the CFTC to pause prediction market offerings on college sports until safeguards are enacted, but that request has fallen on deaf ears.
As students head off to campus this fall, they will face hundreds of betting opportunities every week and an advertising blitz already ramping up. Freshmen will see ads during game breaks in dorm lounges. They will watch classmates open the apps between lectures. And they will be told, over and over, that they are not gambling – they are “investing.”
That framing is the most dangerous part. Investing is about ownership, long-term growth, and building a future. Wagering on whether the Ole Miss Rebels cover the spread on Saturday is not investing, no matter how sleek the interface.
Wrapping a bet in the language of Wall Street does not change what it is. It only makes it easier for smart, financially inexperienced 18-year-old students to talk themselves into it.
The science is clear. The prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that governs impulse control and long-range judgment, is not fully developed until the mid-twenties.
That is why we do not let 18-year-olds walk into a casino. It is also why the American Psychiatric Association classifies gambling disorder alongside substance addictions, and why young men in college are among the highest-risk populations for developing one.
As you zip up that last suitcase, smooth the comforter one final time and hug your child goodbye, you’ll be thinking about all the things you hope for the child – that he or she will find lifelong friends, stay safe, work hard and make choices that lead toward a bright future.
We can’t walk with our children every step of the way, but we can have honest conversations about the world they’re entering. This fall, make sure one of those conversations is about sports prediction markets and the risks of conflating gambling with investing.
Emily Stack is senior director of policy and executive director of Moms for America Action, a national movement of over half a million moms whose stated mission is to empower moms, promote liberty and raise patriots to heal America from the inside out.
Hence then, the article about prediction markets facing no mississippi regulations are targeting college campuses policy expert warns was published today ( ) and is available on Mississippi Today ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Prediction markets, facing no Mississippi regulations, are targeting college campuses, policy expert warns )
Also on site :
- Akeso's AK157D1 (B7-H3 ADC) Cleared for Phase I Trial in Solid Tumors, Adding a Third Differentiated ADC to Its Pipeline
- I Tried Peet’s New Fall Menu—and My Favorite Item Was a Total Surprise
- Here’s Where to Score Cheap (or Free) Waffles This Week