[Digital Today reporter Hwang Chi-gyu] Prediction-market platform Kalshi has introduced new measures intended to prevent underage trading. Axios reported on April 4 (local time) that the company nevertheless opposes proposals to raise the minimum trading age to 21.
According to the report, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said the platform already prohibits underage trading but is implementing additional safeguards.
Kalshi now requires facial recognition for all users when they open the app to block minors from accessing accounts via family profiles. It asks certain users it deems at higher risk of problematic wagering to submit a selfie. The company is also encouraging two-factor authentication and has rolled out a tool that lets users check whether someone else has logged into their account.
Mansour said, "Our goal is to set a new industry standard for customer protection."
These steps come as concern grows about teenagers—particularly boys and young men—participating in gambling through sportsbooks and prediction markets. A July study by Common Sense Media found that 36% of boys aged 11 to 17 had gambled in the past year, rising to 49% among 17-year-old boys.
Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) introduced the Prediction Market Act of 2026, which would establish a self‑exclusion program and require mandatory age verification. Last week, the NBA and PGA Tour also urged that prediction-market platforms raise their trading age to 21 to match U.S. sportsbook and casino standards.
Still, Mansour told Axios that Kalshi views prediction-market trading as comparable to stock trading—especially certain options markets—and therefore supports keeping the minimum trading age at 18.
