Nevada Regulators File Lawsuit Against Kalshi Over Sports Contracts

^{A digital billboard for prediction market platform Kalshi displays Super Bowl trading odds in California. The Nevada Gaming Control Board believes Kalshi is offering gambling without a gaming license. (Photo: Barry King / Alamy)}

The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) filed a civil enforcement action against Kalshi in the District Court for Carson City on Tuesday, seeking a temporary restraining order that would prevent the prediction market platform from offering sports-based contracts in the state.

The decision to file the lawsuit comes on the heels of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejecting an emergency motion from Kalshi seeking an administrative stay in Nevada that would have prevented state regulators from taking further action for the time being.

NGCB Says Kalshi, Prediction Sites Violate State Gaming Laws

The NGCB is seeking an injunction to prevent Kalshi from continuing its operations in the state. The regulator says that many of Kalshi’s sports contracts are effectively sports wavering under Nevada law, meaning that the website is therefore offering gambling without holding a state license. The NGCB has called Kalshi’s contracts illegal in previous public statements and legal filings.

Nevada has already successfully obtained injunctions against Coinbase and Polymarket to prevent them from offering event contracts in the state. However, Kalshi has fought that effort, instead arguing that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has the exclusive legal right to regulate prediction markets, superseding any state laws. Kalshi has also sought to have the case transferred to federal court, arguing that the issue of whether the CFTC has exclusive jurisdiction over the company is in dispute.

On the same day, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig announced that the agency had filed a friend-of-the-court brief to support Crypto.com in its own legal battle in Nevada. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Selig argued that state regulators are overstepping their bounds by trying to regulate prediction markets.

“The most common allegation [against prediction markets] is that these contracts are a form of gambling and therefore subject to state laws,” Selig wrote. “The CFTC will no longer sit idly by while overzealous state governments undermine the agency’s exclusive jurisdiction over these markets by seeking to establish statewide prohibitions on these exciting products.”

Kalshi Faces Battles in Massachusetts, Other States

The Trump administration has notable ties to the prediction industry. Donald Trump Jr. serves as a paid advisor for Kalshi, and is also a known investor in Polymarket, which has recently returned to the United States.

However, even some Republican governors have vowed to fight against Kalshi and similar companies.

“These prediction markets you are breathlessly defending are gambling—pure and simple,” Utah Governor Spencer Cox said in response to Selig. “They are destroying the lives of families and countless Americans, especially young men. They have no place in Utah.”

Kalshi is also facing legal battles in other states. In Massachusetts, a Superior Court judge issued an injunction requiring the company to stop offering sports contracts within 30 days. However, the Massachusetts Appeals Court granted a stay of that order on Tuesday while the case plays out.

Kalshi and other prediction markets have seen rapid, sustained growth since first offering sports-based markets in early 2025. According to Kalshi, more than $1 billion was traded on its Super Bowl 60 markets earlier this month.