It was a few days before Primary Day when, Zohran Mamdani says, he got a text message from a person he hadn’t spoken to since high school.

“Yo bro, I just put a thousand on you,” the text read. “Please don’t let me down.”

Mamdani, the Democratic front-runner for New York City mayor, didn’t specify where or how his acquaintance put money on him when he recounted the story during an appearance on the Flagrant podcast .

One possible place is Kalshi, an exchange that allows users to purchase contracts that pay out a higher rate if an event or action — such as an election — goes their way.

Kalshi is having a moment in New York and beyond, thanks in part to its flashy advertisements in Times Square, outside Penn Station and on subway trains showing real-time odds for Mamdani and his main

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