Kalshi Advertising Lie: ‘Everyone Is An Expert On Something’

It’s human nature to want to know things and acquire knowledge. Many people enjoy the social or practical benefits of having expertise in something, whether it’s acquired through formal education and a career or as a hobby.

Some people also want others to think of them as an “expert” on a topic. This desire can be a beautifully energizing thing in someone’s life. It can push you to connect with others and feel a sense of identity.

Prediction markets, and specifically Kalshi, target and exploit that uplifting feeling.

What Is Kalshi?

Kalshi is a gambling website/app and a leader in the nascent U.S. “prediction market” sector. These platforms let you place bets on a wide array of real-world events. Few events appear to be off limits.

One of the company’s main slogans is, “Everyone is an expert on something.” 

Kalshi co-founder Luana Lopes Lara used this phrase in a November 2025 CBS Sunday Morning interview, and other company representatives have repeated it. CNN is also promoting Kalshi and this logic.

This slogan is not harmless inspiration. It’s a marketing tactic that encourages people to mix identity and knowledge with the attempt to make a gambling profit.

It’s a classic lure into potential skill-based gambling harm.

What Does This Kalshi Slogan Mean?

Kalshi is saying you can use your knowledge about a niche topic to place bets and win money against other participants in a peer-to-peer “market” who presumably aren’t as informed as you.

The Kalshi advertising reframes gambling as a form of competence and self-expression. It suggests that betting is a rational way to “monetize what you know.”

That’s the advertising gimmick.

Kalshi wants you to believe you’re not gambling or chasing a high when you’re monetizing your topical knowledge. You’re not vulnerable to gambling addiction because you’re just an expert.

Expertise Overestimation

Believing your knowledge provides a reliable edge is one of the most significant pitfalls of gambling products that claim a skill component.

You might be very knowledgeable about something, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to make money betting on it. You might even be less likely to take the necessary precautions because the activity feels like an extension of your “expert” identity.

This is where the illusion of control could creep in. The more familiar a subject feels, the easier it is to mistake confidence for a monetizable advantage. As the Dunning-Kruger effect helps explain, people often overrate their accuracy in complex, probabilistic environments.

It’s extremely difficult to be objective about the level of your knowledge and whether it can translate into making money.

Intermittent Reinforcement

Gambling products with strategy components allow you to succeed sometimes. In poker, for example, you can improve and win more than the average player. This dynamic differs from games such as the lottery and roulette, where no skill is required.

That occasional success is what makes this kind of gambling more psychologically risky. Intermittent reinforcement can make betting feel like a solvable puzzle rather than a behavior with serious downside.

If you have trouble controlling your play, any real knowledge you have can be drowned out by compulsive gambling behaviors.

The Market Is Not Your Friend

Prediction markets advertise themselves as information engines. In practice, the prices reflect a crowded arena of competing opinions, breaking news updates, and participants who may be far more resourced than you are.

Even if you’re a genuine expert, your insight may already be “priced in.” By the time you act, the market has often absorbed the same information you’re relying on.

Insider Betting

It’s also critical to understand that many markets will have insiders. Insider stock trading is clearly illegal (albeit often unenforced), but it’s unclear whether doing so on prediction markets is unlawful. It appears to depend on the gambling market.

Regardless, it doesn’t matter how much research you do. You won’t have the upper hand against participants who have privileged information that you cannot access.

So yes, you might be an “expert” on some niche topic. But it’s a gambling fallacy to believe your insight is enough to outsmart what is effectively a house edge embedded in the market.

In the case of so-called mention markets, you might also lose to people who are physically present at the event, who can have an advantage over you due to the broadcast delay.

Can You Ruin the Joy in Your Hobby?

Let’s say you love Taylor Swift and decide to bet on her record sales or Spotify streams via a prediction market platform.

If you develop a gambling problem betting on your favorite artist, you could end up contaminating your enjoyment of their music. The thing that once gave you joy becomes a source of stress.

Kalshi’s slogan, “Everyone is an expert on something,” tries to turn your hobby or passionate interest into naked gambling.

Is potentially making a few bucks worth risking your source of joy?

If a gambling platform is telling you your identity is a competitive advantage, that’s not empowerment. It’s a red flag that you’re being manipulated.

When to Seek Help

Kalshi has indicated that it cares little about user harm. In July 2025, a Kalshi lawyer said regarding regulation and problem gambling: “People are adults, and they’re allowed to spend their money however they want, and if they lose their shirt, that’s on them.”

If you are using a prediction market and you feel yourself chasing losses, hiding your play from the people close to you, or tying your self-worth to betting outcomes, consider quitting and using support resources. Call 1-800-GAMBLER if you need immediate assistance.

It is very possible to develop a nasty addiction to Kalshi and other prediction markets. Be aware of their other marketing tactic known as “responsible trading.”