LOCAL COLUMN
OPINION: There's a bookie in your college freshman's pocket
This month, New Mexico parents will pack their 18-year-olds off to campuses across the state and worry about the usual things 鈥� homesickness, roommates and that first shaky attempt at independence. But there is a new risk many parents don't know exists: Their child can now readily gamble on sports from a dorm room, despite New Mexico鈥檚 prohibition on online sports gambling.
So-called "prediction markets," popular platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, let users as young as 18 all across the country gamble on everything from sports to what word might be mentioned at a press conference.
It doesn鈥檛 matter what the laws are in New Mexico or any other state. Unlike traditional online sports betting apps, these platforms don鈥檛 abide by state age minimums or outright bans.
Instead, these companies insist they are federally regulated financial exchanges 鈥� investment tools 鈥� not sportsbooks. But for a college freshman with a Venmo balance and a favorite team, the distinction is meaningless. It is sports gambling.
Most parents assume that guardrails are in place. New Mexico does not authorize statewide online sports betting, but prediction markets skirt those laws. Almost 3 in 4 voters in New Mexico believe that prediction markets should be required to follow the same state gaming laws as licensed sportsbooks, according to Morning Consult polling conducted earlier this year.
But prediction markets claim they cannot be regulated by states. Working with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), they argue they are akin to the New York Stock Exchange but for sports. That has made sports-style wagering available from a phone to 18-year-old college students in New Mexico, despite the state ban on such activity.
These platforms are also reportedly targeting college campuses with aggressive marketing, sponsoring college clubs and paying student influencers to popularize them with peers. The NCAA has called for the CFTC to pause prediction market offerings on college sports until safeguards are implemented, but that request has fallen on deaf ears.
As your student heads off to campus this fall, they will face hundreds of betting opportunities every week and an advertising blitz already ramping up. Freshmen will see ads during game breaks in dorm lounges. And they will be told, over and over, that they are not gambling 鈥� they are "investing."
Investing is about ownership, long-term growth and building a future. Wagering on whether the Lobos cover the spread this weekend is not investing, no matter how sleek the interface. Wrapping a bet in the language of Wall Street does not change what it is; it only makes it easier for a smart, financially inexperienced 18-year-old to talk themselves into it.
The prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that governs impulse control and long-range judgment, is not fully developed until the mid-20s. That is one reason most states with legal sports betting set the minimum age at 21. It is also why the American Psychiatric Association classifies gambling disorder alongside substance addictions, and why young men in college are among the highest-risk populations for developing one.
As you zip up that last suitcase, smooth the comforter one final time and hug your child goodbye, you'll be thinking about all the things you hope for them 鈥� that they will find lifelong friends, stay safe, work hard and make choices that lead toward a bright future.
We can鈥檛 walk with our children every step of the way, but we can have honest conversations about the world they鈥檙e entering. This fall, make sure one of those conversations is about sports prediction markets and the risks of conflating gambling with investing.
Emily Stack is senior director of policy and executive director of Moms for America Action.
