In a new wrinkle on America’s gambling mania, is going to allow people to bet on the acceptance percentages at top colleges and universities. Should we care?

In today’s Martin Center article, Garion Frankel argues that we should.

He writes, “Prediction markets are very intentionally weaving themselves into university life. They already allow users to place bets on whether the University of California will reinstate its testing requirement, whether Yale’s law school will settle with the Department of Justice over its admissions scandal, or whether the U.S. News and World Report will rank a particular university in its top 20. Worst of all, they target students in their advertising and sponsor student organizations and events to build their presence on college campuses.”

Frankel realizes that colleges can’t stop students from gambling if they want to, but they could take steps to minimize the gambling frenzy by promoting the various organizations that help people control their urge to gamble and to give the likes of Kalshi the cold shoulder.