Around 26% of Gen Z investors in the U.S. revealed in a recent survey by the American finance platform Betterment that they treat sports betting as a “deliberate, ongoing component” of their wealth plans, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 13.
In comparison, 14% of millennials, 6% of Gen X, and 1% of baby boomers admitted to treating sports betting as a means of wealth creation.
Related: More Americans over 55 hold crypto than under 25, NCA report finds
About 33% of Gen Z respondents said they don’t participate in sports betting at all, compared with 63% of investors across the four generations. The online survey gathered responses from 1,000 U.S. retail investors.
The report cited a Northwestern Mutual Planning & Progress study from March as per which housing unaffordability and rising living costs have led to many people flocking to high-risk, speculative trades such as prediction markets, sports betting, and cryptocurrencies to achieve their financial goals quickly.
“When a prediction market or sportsbook starts to feel like a retirement strategy, we have a problem,” said Betterment CEO Sarah Levy. “These products are designed to keep people seeking the next quick score, not to help them build toward the next decade.”
States sue prediction markets as CFTC defends its jurisdiction
Prediction market platforms such as Polymarket have gained immense popularity due to their sports event contracts.
Launched in 2020, Polymarket is the world’s largest prediction market. It is built on Polygon, the Ethereum-based layer-2 blockchain network. It lets traders predict events like future Bitcoin (BTC) prices, election results, sports events, etc., by paying with cryptocurrency.
Users can deposit Circle’s USDC stablecoin, a type of digital dollar, and trade shares that represent the likelihood of specific future outcomes.
CNBC reported that its international exchange posted a record monthly notional trading exceeding $10.8 billion and its U.S. exchange posted a figure north of $3.5 billion in June during the FIFA World Cup.
Popular on TheStreet Roundtable:
In the U.S., Polymarket offers its contracts as a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-registered platform.
Several U.S. states such as Michigan, Nevada, Massachusetts, and Illinois have blocked or tried to restrict Polymarket’s sports event markets, arguing these markets are nothing but sports betting.