The old adage about ducks — if it looks, swims and quacks like one, it probably is one — seems to be escaping US regulators, who have so far accepted the claim by some gambling companies that they are not actually gambling companies. Congress ought to act before this artifice does further damage.

Business has boomed at companies such as Kalshi Inc. and Polymarket over the past year as they’ve allowed users to gamble on sports, politics and much else. In their preferred euphemisms, these platforms aren’t bookies but “prediction markets.” Putting money on the outcome of a football game isn’t a bet, it’s an “events contract.” (Wink, wink.)

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