SALT LAKE CITY, Ut. — After top Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints official echoed concerns from state legislators about predictive market apps, gambling addiction experts said there is a potential for addiction.
For months, Utah State legislators have likened prediction market apps like Kalshi and Polymarket to gambling by introducing legislation and even stating in court filings that Kalshi is in violation of Utah’s Anti-Gambling laws.
—Watch: Mental health experts discuss predictive market apps—
Because of this Kalshi filed a preemptive lawsuit against the state arguing that the state cannot act against them because they are not a gambling company. Instead, it offers contracts and is regulated by a different set of laws and the Federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
However, on Saturday, President D. Todd Christofferson, who is the Second Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, drew the same comparison as state legislators in a speech at the General Conference.
MORE: LDS leader decries explosion in sports betting, prediction markets
"The smartphone has transformed gambling from an occasional activity requiring a trip to a casino, racetrack, or lottery kiosk into an activity available continuously, privately, and almost anywhere. This has led to an explosion in gambling,” said Christofferson.
While Kalshi denies it is a gambling company, mental health experts say the app can affect some of its users in a similar way.
“As a mental health practitioner and as a mental health professional and supervisor and educator, I worry about the existence of such things just like I worry about the existence of the availability of alcohol,” said Matthew Draper, a clinical director at Paramita Perspectives.
Part of Draper’s concerns is because he said apps like these employ a concept called intermittent reinforcement that we see similarly in traditional forms of gambling.
"So, intermittent reinforcement is for example how slot machines work, I could put in a quarter, pull a level, put a quarter, pull a lever and I don't know if it will take 100 lever pulls or only one to win and when it's unpredictable like that, it's more likely to set up these compulsive relationships with gambling,” said Draper.
On Kalshi, you can place a bet on a whole host of topics.
"Sports, politics, elections, crypto, culture, economics, all of these things,” said Ed Peterson, a therapist at Peterson Family Therapy.
The access to placing a bet concerns Peterson because he said people dealing with mood disorders, like depression, can get especially hooked to apps like these.
"People, especially who have ADHD, and also Bipolar can be a big thing because when people are hypo-manic or manic, their judgment has gone out the window,” said Peterson.
Mental health experts said some studies and surveys show as low as 8% of people dealing with a gambling disorder seek help.
They urged that if you are dealing with a gambling disorder to reach out to Gamblers Anonymous.