How to self-exclude from Kalshi

Before you start

Kalshi is a prediction market, regulated federally rather than by your state. That's why your state's sportsbook ban doesn't reach it, and why you have to close it yourself. If you're not sure why that matters, read Is Kalshi gambling? first.

Do this on a calm evening, from a laptop if you can. You'll make better choices about the length of the exclusion when you're not in the middle of wanting to place something.

Step 1: Find the consumer-protection section

Log in to Kalshi and open your account settings. Kalshi groups its protections in a consumer-protection (responsible-trading) area. In it you'll find three kinds of tool:

• Deposit limits: a cap on how much you can put in over a day, week or month.
• A timed break: your account is paused for a set period, then reopens.
• Self-exclusion (opt-out): your account is closed to trading, for a long period or permanently.

Step 2: Choose exclusion, not a limit

Limits feel like a sensible middle ground. For most people trying to stop, they aren't. A limit is a door you've agreed to keep open a little, and the urge is very good at deciding that this week is the exception.

Pick the full opt-out, and pick the longest period offered. If the options are a month, a year or permanent, and permanent feels like too much, take a year. Just take something long enough that you won't be making this decision again soon.

Step 3: Join SelfExclude

Kalshi was the first partner in SelfExclude, a shared self-exclusion list run by the responsible-gambling organisation IC360. The idea is that one sign-up excludes you from every participating app. Earlier this year, other platforms were reported to be in the process of joining, including Polymarket, Robinhood and ProphetX. Check the list of current partners when you sign up, and exclude from anyone not on it directly.

Step 4: Close the account's escape routes

An exclusion stops trading. It doesn't stop you from opening a new account with a different email in a weak moment. Make that harder:

1. Withdraw any balance before or as part of closing the account, so there's nothing sitting there to "use up".
2. Remove saved payment methods: cards, bank links, Apple Pay.
3. Delete the app, and block the site and app on your phone. On iPhone, Screen Time can do this, and Back to Even's Shield does it with one switch and a lock you can't undo mid-urge. Our guide to blocking gambling on iPhone covers every option.
4. Turn off Kalshi emails and push notifications if the account stays open in any form. The "markets you might like" email is an urge with a subject line.

Step 5: Close the other doors the same night

Kalshi is rarely the only door. While you're doing this:

• Add yourself to your state's self-exclusion list, which covers licensed sportsbooks.
• Exclude from Polymarket and any other prediction market you've used.
• Exclude from pick'em apps like PrizePicks or Underdog, and email any sweepstakes casinos to close your account.
• Ask your bank about blocking gambling transactions. See our bank guide.

What your state list doesn't cover has the full checklist.

If you've already relapsed through Kalshi

You're not unusual, and it wasn't weakness. If you excluded from sportsbooks and then found Kalshi, you fell through a gap that was built into the system. Addiction counselors have been describing exactly this pattern all year.

Log the slip honestly, close Kalshi tonight, and look at what to do after a relapse. The run starts again; the work you did before it doesn't disappear.

Getting help

If gambling has become hard to control, talk to someone. In the US, call or text 1-800-GAMBLER. It's free, confidential and open 24/7. If you're having thoughts of harming yourself, call or text 988.