Kalshi Hit With Extended Ban as Judge Rules Sports Contracts Equal Gambling

A Nevada state court judge on Friday extended a ban on prediction market operator Kalshi and said he would issue a preliminary injunction sought by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

Judge Jason Woodbury of the First Judicial District Court in Carson City said buying a contract on a baseball game through Kalshi was “indistinguishable” from placing a bet on a state-licensed gaming platform, according to Reuters. He extended a temporary restraining order he first granted on March 20 by two weeks while finalizing the injunction’s language.

Kalshi’s lawyers argued the platform’s contracts constitute “swaps” regulated exclusively by the CFTC, a position the federal agency has adopted in related litigation. Woodbury was not persuaded.

Nevada is now the only state with an active, court-enforced ban against the New York-based company, which has become the central figure in a widening legal battle over whether prediction markets are financial instruments or gambling products.

The ruling arrived on a day packed with legal developments for the industry. In federal court in Arizona, U.S. District Judge Michael Liburdi heard arguments on Kalshi’s motion to halt the state’s criminal prosecution of the platform. Liburdi consolidated the CFTC’s newly filed Arizona lawsuit with Kalshi’s existing case and said he would issue an order late next week, according to gaming lawyer Daniel Wallach. 

Arizona became the first state to file criminal charges against a prediction market platform in March, when Attorney General Kris Mayes levied 20 misdemeanor counts against Kalshi for allegedly accepting unlicensed wagers on sports and elections.

The twin hearings came one day after the CFTC sued Arizona, Connecticut, and Illinois in an unprecedented move to assert federal jurisdiction over prediction markets. Chairman Michael Selig accused the states of trying to impose “a fragmented patchwork of state regulations.”

Outcomes across the legal landscape have been inconsistent. A Tennessee federal judge sided with Kalshi in February, finding the platform is likely to succeed in arguing its contracts qualify as federally regulated swaps. A New Jersey court also granted Kalshi an injunction against that state’s efforts to stop sports-related offerings.

But judges in Ohio, Maryland, and now Nevada have ruled against the company. A Massachusetts injunction is on hold pending appeal.

TD Cowen has said states still appear to hold the stronger legal position, and that the dispute is likely headed to the Supreme Court, with a resolution potentially not arriving until 2028.

The regulatory pressure extends beyond the courts. A bipartisan Senate bill introduced last month by Sens. Adam Schiff and John Curtis would prohibit CFTC-regulated platforms from listing sports and casino-style betting contracts. The NFL has separately asked prediction market operators to block contracts it deems “objectionable.”

The legal battles stand in contrast to Kalshi’s commercial trajectory. The company has been valued at roughly $22 billion following a $1 billion raise disclosed in March, It recorded about $10.4 billion in trading volume in February, per The Block’s data dashboard, and has signed distribution partnerships with Robinhood, CNN, CNBC, and Google Finance.

A Kalshi spokesperson previously told Loadnaija Reporter that banning sports-related contracts on regulated platforms would push activity offshore and argued the proposal is motivated by “casino interests that are threatened by competition.”