Catherine Long

Hey, good to be here.

I mean, I hadn't exactly conceived of it until you put it that way, but I think you're right on the money there.

Yeah, I would actually flip that to say it's focused largely on government insider trading and maybe a little bit on sports betting.

But yeah, I mean, you know, the...

Efforts at regulation, it seems like every day now, a new congressperson is coming out with some prediction market-related bill.

I mean, I guess don't put your eggs in one basket.

Maybe one way of looking at it.

A couple of different ways.

Both companies have worked with college students who are online content creators, influencers on Instagram and TikTok to create content promoting both brands.

They've also reached out directly to college clubs, student groups and fraternities.

At a fraternity at Columbia University, Polymarket inked an affiliate deal with them.

Basically, for every student that fraternity members convinced to sign up for Polymarket's U.S.

app, which is rolling out shortly, the fraternity would get a certain amount of money back in their wallets.

And the fraternity was so successful at doing this that they featured in polymarket marketing material to other fraternities and student groups around the country that the company was trying to pitch on a similar deal.

They said the Columbia chapter raised over $30,000 in a span of two weeks, and it sent them a wooden plaque commemorating them as the inaugural polymarket pledge class.

The companies say they're not gambling, that they're offering financial products, and that the people who use their platforms are trading against each other, not a house, which is different than going to a casino, for instance.

But gambling and addiction experts have raised alarm bells because what we're seeing across the country is an increasing prevalence of problem gambling among young men in particular, people age 18 to 35.

And prediction markets do bear many similar features to online gambling apps.

You can bet on sports.

Kelshi even recently began offering a different way to view the platform that's much more similar to a traditional sports book.