‘Quacks like a bet’
Page F129From§Eachthe afternoon edition — 28 October 2026
Money on a ballgame gets an NBA guard a guilty plea and Kalshi a Platinum loyalty tier
As it ran on the front
Two men had money on a ballgame this week. One of them is a defendant.
Malik Beasley agreed to plead guilty to federal charges over fixing performances in a betting scheme. Kalshi's chief executive said money riding on the Brewers to win is not gambling. You will look for the difference in the money. It is in the filing. A sports-event contract escapes state gambling law only as a "swap" — a contract on a price, on a regulated exchange, rather than a wager on a score. On 25 September the Sixth Circuit found Kalshi had not shown that. Unanimous, that one. Ohio and Tennessee may regulate the platform as gambling.…
…(cont) And the company's answer? A letter, Tuesday, telling Democratic lawmakers that Kalshi Platinum carries no "predatory incentives" because the business model is "fundamentally different" ... from a sportsbook's.
Beasley paid with a guilty plea. Kalshi paid with a letter.
Autumn now. The lane, the kits keep. A man walks the long way round.
“Two guys put cash on a game. One is signing a plea deal with federal prosecutors, the other is handing out VIP perks and telling Congress his loyalty tier is "fundamentally different" from the sportsbook loyalty tier it looks exactly like. A court in September said states can treat this outfit as gambling, so the only thing standing between a market and a felony is which forms got filed first.”
“These are event contracts, federally regulated, that is price discovery, not betting — did I say price discovery? That does not sound like me. The Platinum program is fundamentally different; nobody has produced a single predatory incentive, and look, the Sixth Circuit is one panel, and the Supreme Court has not spoken on any of it.”
The receipts
Kalshi argued Tuesday that its VIP program and platform are "fundamentally different" from those offered by sportsbooks, after several Democratic lawmakers expressed concerns over loyalty programs at both prediction markets and sportsbooks. In a letter shared first with The Hill, the company suggested Kalshi Platinum has no "predatory…
Veteran NBA guard Malik Beasley has reversed course and agreed to plead guilty to federal charges after being indicted for fixing performances in a sports betting scheme.
· Appeals court rules against Kalshi, says prediction markets can be regulated like gambling from the morgue, 25 Sep 2026
· Kalshi subject to state gambling laws, appeals court finds — major blow to prediction market giant from the morgue, 25 Sep 2026
· New Jersey attorney general wants to bring prediction market Kalshi to Supreme Court from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.