I just don’t really know what this has to do with gambling. If we are gambling, then I think you’re basically calling the entire financial market gambling.”
— Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour, in an interview with Axios
“You’re not going to hear me say this isn’t sports betting. That’s a ridiculous comment.”
— Sporttrade founder and CEO Alex Kane, in an interview with Sportico
Those two quotes wouldn’t be terribly interesting if not for the fact both men are talking about the same thing: putting money down on the outcome of a sporting event. Mansour calls them “sports event contracts,” Kane calls them “bets.”
[...]
For sports betting to qualify as something other than gambling under current regulations, advocates point to its broader economic impact.
...
Dennis Ehling, a gaming attorney for Blank Rome in Los Angeles, sees the merit in this argument but adds an important caveat: “Many people who take a position on sporting events have no such underlying economic interest to protect or hedge.”
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"The Semantic Showdown: How Language Could Reshape Sports Betting," by Jeff Edelstein was published in InGame on May 8. 2025.
