Sixth Circuit Backs Ohio's Right To Regulate Kalshi
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Ohio regulators can continue to enforce state gambling law against prediction market operator Kalshi while the underlying legal dispute continues, according to Cleveland.com.
The ruling upholds an earlier decision from U.S. District Judge Sarah D. Morrison, who rejected Kalshi's request to temporarily block Ohio from enforcing its gambling laws against the company.
Judge Morrison wrote that treating sports-event contracts as federally regulated swaps could produce what she called absurd results. If such contracts were protected from state gambling laws, she said, all sports bets would have to be made through companies like Kalshi, effectively putting traditional sportsbooks out of business.
"Currency exchange rates, the weather, and energy costs all do that," Morrison wrote of the type of measures genuinely covered by federal swap regulations. "The number of points scored in the Huskies-Bobcats game does not."
Fine Proposal Still Pending
The Sixth Circuit's ruling, which covers Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee, concerns only Kalshi's request for a preliminary injunction and does not end the underlying lawsuit.
The Ohio Casino Control Commission announced in June that it intended to fine Kalshi 5 million dollars for offering sports contracts without a state licence, and has also said the company does not pay Ohio's 20% tax on sports-betting receipts or meet state requirements for self-exclusion and advertising.
Kalshi has 30 days from the commission's notice to request a hearing on the proposed fine.
One Front In A Broader Legal Battle
The Ohio dispute is one of at least eight state-level legal battles Kalshi is fighting over its sports-event contracts, with courts issuing differing preliminary rulings across jurisdictions.
The Sixth Circuit's decision gives Ohio regulators a rare appellate-level win in that wider fight, even as the core question of whether prediction markets fall under state gambling law or federal swaps law remains unresolved.
DeWine Calls It A Win For State Authority
"I am pleased that the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the legality of Ohio and Tennessee's efforts to assert our states' gambling laws jurisdiction over Kalshi for sports betting products," Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said in a statement.
Tennessee joined Ohio in the case, and the Sixth Circuit's ruling covers both states' authority to enforce their own gambling laws against the company.
Kalshi lets customers put money on the outcome of sporting events through its own website and app and through Robinhood, the stock-trading platform, and began offering the contracts in Ohio in early 2025.
Ohio law sets the minimum sports-betting age at 21, and regulators have said Kalshi's contracts allow people as young as 18 to place wagers, one of several ways the state says the company violates its licensing requirements.
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