News about Kalshi

Utah Attorney General Derek Brown sued Kalshi, its affiliates and two Susquehanna trading companies, alleging the prediction market platform has facilitated illegal betting in the state since 2024. Utah asked the court to compel the companies to return about $30 million to $60 million in profits and to stop sports, election, politics and culture bets in Utah. The lawsuit alleges Kalshi illegally served more than 32,000 users in the state, causing significant losses. A judge had earlier ruled for Utah in August, and an appellate court denied Kalshi's injunction request in September. The case is one of many filed by states against prediction market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket, as the U.S. Supreme Court considers New Jersey's case.

Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said at DC Fintech Week that the legal fight over prediction markets is really a choice between federal oversight in the U.S. and the industry moving offshore. He said he feels “pretty good” about the company’s legal standing and rejected the argument that sports event contracts lack economic consequences. States accuse prediction markets of illegal sports wagering, while Kalshi and the CFTC argue the federal agency should be the sole watchdog; federal appellate courts have split, with one ruling for Kalshi and two for the states, and New Jersey has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case. Mansour also rejected accusations of inflated trading volume in bitcoin and ether perpetual-futures markets, attributing recurring trade sizes to fixed-size orders from market makers. The CFTC recently issued a rule and proposed another to place event contracts under the swaps definitions it polices.