{"id":7594,"date":"2026-07-16T11:35:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T06:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7594"},"modified":"2026-07-16T11:35:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T06:35:52","slug":"buffett-and-kalshi-two-views-of-americas-gambling-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7594","title":{"rendered":"Buffett and Kalshi: Two views of America&#039;s gambling boom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/ReKm8fliXtOQd4es-A1NtN5fVSg=\/1366x768\/smart\/2023\/05\/07\/192920-1683487760468.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Oracle of Omaha is concerned that America has a gambling problem.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/11\/10\/warren-buffett-berkshire-hathaway\" target=\"_blank\">Warren Buffett<\/a> recently retired from Berkshire Hathaway, but when he speaks, investors still listen.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Driving the news: <\/strong>Buffett articulated his concerns about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/02\/08\/polymarket-kalshi-draftkings-fanduel-betting\" target=\"_blank\">America&#8217;s gambling culture<\/a> in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/07\/15\/warren-buffett-on-the-market-today-its-tough-to-find-values-when-everybody-is-preferring-gambling.html\" target=\"_blank\">interview with CNBC<\/a>, saying speculative trading is undermining long-term investing.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;It&#8217;s tough to find values when everybody is preferring gambling,&#8221; he said.<\/li>\n<li>He added: &#8220;Since humans love to gamble so much, there&#8217;s more money in, in actually cultivating gamblers than there are cultivating investors.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The big picture: <\/strong>Buffett&#8217;s comments come amid the rise of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/04\/09\/kalshi-axios-show-mansour-lopes-lara\" target=\"_blank\">prediction markets<\/a> like Kalshi and Polymarket, which are giving investors the ability to risk money via alternative methods.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kalshi recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/05\/29\/kalshi-perps-perpetual-futures-crypto\" target=\"_blank\">debuted perpetual futures<\/a>, or perps, allowing investors to effectively bet on whether the price of an existing asset will go up or down.<\/li>\n<li>And the prediction markets are under fire from critics who say they&#8217;re facilitating gambling \u2014 particularly on sports \u2014 outside of the auspices of state gaming regulation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The other side: <\/strong>Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said Tuesday in an <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/axios\/status\/2077020658169532855\/video\/1\" target=\"_blank\">on-stage interview<\/a> at Axios House DC that many prediction market users feel like conventional markets &#8220;are not working&#8221; for them.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;They feel like the game is rigged against them \u2014 and they&#8217;re mostly right. There&#8217;s no way for them to get an edge in those markets,&#8221; Mansour said. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Friction point: <\/strong>The rapid expansion of sports betting has been blamed for fueling gambling addiction, particularly among younger Americans. And critics say prediction markets <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/kalshi-polymarket-prediction-markets-45ffa90f68402461fcad768ce54caf6d\" target=\"_blank\">are doing the same<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What we&#8217;re watching:<\/strong> It remains to be seen whether efforts by both industries to invest in problem gambling initiatives and support legislative efforts will be enough to satisfy lawmakers.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mansour appeared Wednesday at a press conference on Capitol Hill to support a new bipartisan bill to help prevent kids from using prediction markets and sportsbooks by requiring facial recognition technology to verify their age before they can bet or trade.<\/li>\n<li>Kalshi also recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/05\/18\/kalshi-national-council-problem-gambling\" target=\"_blank\">joined<\/a> the National Council on Problem Gambling, becoming the first prediction market to do so.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The bottom line: <\/strong>The conversation about America&#8217;s gambling habit is reaching the highest levels.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Oracle of Omaha is concerned that America has a gambling problem. Why it matters: Warren Buffett recently retired from Berkshire Hathaway, but when he speaks, investors still listen. Driving the news: Buffett articulated his concerns about America&#8217;s gambling culture in an interview with CNBC, saying speculative trading is undermining long-term investing. &#8220;It&#8217;s tough to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/ReKm8fliXtOQd4es-A1NtN5fVSg=\/1366x768\/smart\/2023\/05\/07\/192920-1683487760468.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}