There are many kinds of "cash advance". You can't buy lottery tickets on a credit card (or in jurisdictions where you can, it's a cash advance). Credit cards also treat things such as buying dollar coins online from the US Mint different from a normal transaction.

https://gosunward.org/articles/cash-advance-on-a-credit-card...

There is a whole lot of merchant categories that is treated like withdrawing money from an ATM. I believe the term is “quasicash”.

I saw this for the first time in NYC at a dispensary, i’ve never seen a payment terminal charge me $4.75 for an atm transaction fee but it was pretty smooth.

“Cash equivalents” is the term.

Prediction market aren't one of them. I checked my credit card statement and the transaction was classified as Professional Services.

In Australia any sort of gambling payment on a credit card is treated as a cash advance. If you use PayPal on top of your credit card, the credit card company still manages to introspect it and apply a cash advance fee.

But these are "prediction markets", an entirely different thing that is definitely not gambling!

But if you somehow have a 100% correct prediction you are now "insider trading" and that is not allowed because all gambling.. ahem, all betting... hmm... All predicting much be "fair" and "random" and definitely not too good.

It's very simple. You can bet and lose as much as you like, but if you bet and win, you are clearly cheating somehow.

So they want you to believe, but I find I cannot take such claims seriously.

I think the exclamation point at the end of GP's message is intended to indicate sarcasm - GP also doesn't take these claims seriously.

Wanna bet?

If I did, I'd be on one of the prediction markets.

It’s a cash advance since you’re not purchasing goods or services with the card.

It’s really a cash advance whenever the issuing bank decides it is. There is no official definition.

Not necessarily, I mean if you buy a in-game item or currency that wouldn't be a cash advance so with this they could just say you bought $20 worth of credits and since you're buying credits that could be considered a good.

That would be purchasing a license (service).

Gambling is always classed as a cash advance. The gift cards trick has been tapped and closed, the credit companies figured it out decades ago.

This is not gambling in the legal sense (gambling is not even allowed in my state, and yet here I am using Kalshi, in case you wanted to argue that), which is why my transaction was classified as Professional Services and, for the nth time, NOT a cash advance.

> Gambling is always classed as a cash advance.

Many banks do, but there's no hard rule of the sort you're implying.

> The gift cards trick has been tapped and closed, the credit companies figured it out decades ago.

What do you mean? Buying gift cards using credit cards is absolutely possible.

What if the site allows you to purchase a digital asset such as a CS2 skin which you can then immediately sell back to them at the same price you to get credits in your account to gamble?

If done at scale, you will get complaints/chargebacks that will trigger an audit followed by fines and/or account closure. Banks and underwriters have standard procedures in place to catch this.

That's fraud.

I'm trying to understand which part exactly is fraud? If this site offered a legitimate marketplace for these items as well as gambling then in certain jurisdictions of course that could be illegal (due to the gambling aspect) but where does the fraud come in exactly?

The fraud is circumventing restrictions on purchasing gambling credits by ostensibly purchasing a CS2 skin at the time of the financial transaction.

Legal what-ifs have a much lower bar than a C++ if clause or the assembly conditional it compiles to.

How is it different than if I buy a TV and sell it on Ebay and use the funds to gamble?

Depending on circumstances, many activities under the same banner of analogy are actually fraud as well. I suggest talking to a lawyer before making any plans. Fraud is more about intent to circumvent, and chaining together individually-legal activities is the most common path to a fraud conviction.

It's not a cash advance. I funded my Kalshi account using a Capital One credit card. Not only was it not classified a cash advance, I got 1.5% back as is standard on this card.

I really appreciate all of the colourful feedback, but as I have said, this is not a cash advance. It was classified as Professional Services by Capital One and I received 1.5% cash back as is standard with the credit card I used.

The issue stems from the fact that people believe prediction markets are gambling. Prediction markets are financial derivatives regulated by the CFTC. This definition is not something I am trying to defend, I am simply accepting the current legal definition to explain why funding your Kalshi account is not considered a cash advance. Gambling is not even allowed in my state, yet Kalshi is permitted. Legally, Kalshi is not gambling as of the current legislation. That is why, for the nth time, funding your Kalshi account is NOT considered a cash advance.

People should do a little bit of research before blindly downvoting, or maybe even try it for themselves.