On Thursday, a group of 38 state Attorneys General filed an amicus brief backing the state of Ohio, which is a defendant in a lawsuit filed by Kalshi in 2025. The prediction market platform initiated legal action against the Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) in October of last year, claiming that the state’s attempt to enforce its sports betting regulations on the prediction market were illegal, due to the CFTC’s exclusive regulatory jurisdiction over event contracts.
In an official statement published Friday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta provided his perspective on why states are backing the OCCC’s civil enforcement actions against Kalshi.
“This filing is representative of our bipartisan commitment to protecting state regulatory authority over illegal, unregulated gambling operations,” said the California Attorney General.
“Prediction markets cannot use federal loopholes to bypass state consumer protection, sports gaming, and gambling laws. By joining this brief, we are standing firmly with Ohio and our state partners to ensure that federal commodities laws are not weaponized to evade state laws, fuel gambling addiction, and undermine state revenue.”
READ: Amicus Brief by 37 States Backing State of Ohio (filed June 11, 2026)
The states’ formal entry as interested parties into Kalshi’s lawsuit against Ohio gaming authorities comes one month after the CFTC filed its own amicus brief in the case. Although neither the 37 states nor the federal government is part of the lawsuit itself, amicus briefs can be submitted in external lawsuits when the parties have a genuine interest in how the courts eventually rule.
Kalshi’s original lawsuit against the OCCC, filed in October 2025 as a reaction to Ohio’s legal action against the prediction platform, is currently pending appeal in the Sixth Circuit Appeals Court located in Cincinnati. In March of this year, District Chief Judge Sarah D. Morrison rejected Kalshi’s bid for injunctive relief against the state, which has paved the way for Ohio to enforce its gambling laws against the prediction exchange.
This resulted in Ohio assessing a $5 million fine against Kalshi, a civil enforcement action that is similarly being appealed by the prediction platform. Regardless of how the numerous Circuit Courts rule on legal complaints involving Kalshi and other apps that offer event contacts to US customers, legal experts believe one or more of the cases will eventually be brought before the United States Supreme Court at some point during the 2027 calendar year.
Subsequent to the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling that PASPA was unconstitutional, states across the nation began legalizing retail and online sports betting – an activity that had been previously restricted to within Nevada’s borders. As a result, many states now have their own regulatory and licensing infrastructure that taxes legalized sports betting activity, and uses part or all of those proceeds to fund local, county, and state initiatives.
Attorneys General from these states believe that Kalshi’s event contracts on sports contests are a form of sports betting that falls under the lawful purview of each jurisdiction. However, Kalshi and the CFTC insist that event contracts are “swaps” that fall under the exclusive regulatory remit of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and therefore are exempt from state-based sports betting laws.
Loading …
