A Baylor College of Medicine pediatrician simply informed Texas lawmakers that “highschool seniors are legally strolling round with Vegas of their pockets.” Lindy McGee was describing prediction-market apps comparable to Kalshi and Polymarket, the place customers as younger as 18 bet real money on soccer video games, elections, and pop-culture outcomes. The Texas Medical Affiliation desires the minimal age raised to 21.
The apps sit in a regulatory gap. The federal Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee oversees them, and so they aren’t legally labeled as playing. Texas already bans most betting, however a state effort to close the loophole is stalled in a lawsuit the platforms filed themselves.
Whereas I agree that Texas is heading in the right direction, it’s additionally essential to acknowledge that elevating the age for entry to those apps isn’t the identical as instructing monetary literacy.
App laws don’t train a teen what compound curiosity does to a bank card steadiness. They don’t clarify why a contract priced at 70 cents implies a 70% probability, or how “the home” at all times has the long-term edge that dominates particular person bettors each time. The Texas ban limits entry with out fixing the information hole.
The monetary literacy hole
The subject of monetary literacy is near my coronary heart, on condition that I’ve been working with a crew at Western Washington College to construct an AI utility referred to as FinPrep for academics and faculties to immediately construct monetary literacy lesson plans.
A Junior Achievement and MissionSquare Foundation report discovered that 80% of teenagers have by no means heard of a FICO credit score rating. In the meantime, 43% suppose an 18% rate of interest is manageable.
Educating monetary literacy expertise pays off in methods a ban by no means can. A 2024 study by consulting agency Tyton Companions and Subsequent Gen Private Finance discovered that one semester of highschool private finance produces a lifetime good thing about roughly $100,000 per pupil.
About 30 states now assure such a course, up from eight in 2020. Exterior these states, fewer than one in 10 college students get any monetary training earlier than they graduate. A mother or father, mentor, or supervisor at work will help by instructing the core concepts of how curiosity compounds, how odds actually work, and why the home at all times wins over time.
Younger employees who’re financially literate act like homeowners
Anybody who understands the fundamentals of monetary literacy will perceive why it’s essential to save cash, be extra environment friendly, make investments correctly, and scale back prices the place they will. That makes for a very good worker who acts like an proprietor.
The repair within the office is similar: Dedicate time and assets to instructing the talent.
Amazon dedicated $1.2 billion to its Upskilling 2025 program to coach 300,000 U.S. workers. IBM pledged in 2023 to coach 2 million employees in artificial intelligence expertise by the top of 2026. Each corporations are constructing functionality earlier than anticipating individuals to know what to do, so the instruments repay.
Beneath the betting-app battle is an even bigger story about how we put together younger individuals for managing cash and for the work world.
This week
Decide one younger particular person you’re accountable for—your personal teenager or your latest hire—and identify the only monetary talent they’ll must be profitable. Then spend 20 minutes this week instructing it—the best way you want somebody had taught you.
—Soren Kaplan
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