Kalshi has emerged as the latest prediction market platform to face scrutiny over its advertising practices on Elon Musk’s social media platform X.
The company had previously announced a deal with X, only to retract that statement shortly afterward, raising immediate questions about its marketing strategy.
The Better Business Bureau has formally announced it is referring Kalshi to state attorneys general over what it describes as obscure marketing tactics.
This referral marks a significant escalation and signals that regulatory bodies are growing increasingly impatient with prediction market platforms operating in grey areas.
Kalshi is far from alone in facing this kind of scrutiny, with rival platform Polymarket also drawing considerable criticism for its influencer marketing activity on X.
Polymarket has been targeting UK social media influencers to promote its product, with a number of accounts on X accused of pushing the company without disclosing paid partnerships.
Ellis Platten, who runs the popular AwayDays YouTube channel, publicly called out the campaign after sharing a screenshot of an email sent to him by a supposed Polymarket partner.
Platten was visibly unimpressed, sarcastically captioning his post: “Good to see them targeting creators that are a natural fit.”
His comments drew widespread attention and helped shine a light on what critics argue is a systematic failure to meet basic advertising disclosure standards.
Marketing compliance has increasingly become a flashpoint for the prediction markets sector, which has expanded rapidly but has struggled to keep pace with advertising regulations.
The pattern of behaviour across multiple platforms suggests this is not an isolated problem but rather a broader industry challenge that regulators are now beginning to address directly.
With state attorneys general now potentially involved in the Kalshi case, the consequences for non-compliant advertising could become far more serious than a simple public rebuke.
For operators in the iGaming and prediction markets space, the growing pressure around X advertising underlines the need to ensure influencer and social media campaigns meet full disclosure requirements.
As authorities tighten their focus on digital marketing practices, platforms that continue to toe or cross the regulatory line are likely to find themselves facing increasingly significant legal and reputational consequences.
