Overview
- Four New Mexico tribes filed a federal lawsuit accusing Kalshi of running illegal online sports betting on tribal lands under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and seeking court orders to block the activity along with civil penalties.
- The New Mexico complaint also alleges Kalshi allows users as young as 18 to wager even though the tribes’ gaming rules bar Class III gambling for people under 21.
- In a separate Wisconsin case, a federal judge allowed the Ho-Chunk Nation’s core IGRA claims against Kalshi to move forward but declined to order an immediate shutdown after the tribe did not show measurable near-term losses at its casinos.
- The Wisconsin opinion said the betting happens where the user is located and rejected Kalshi’s argument that its New York headquarters and Ohio servers put the conduct outside tribal jurisdiction.
- Regulators and courts are split as the CFTC asserts exclusive oversight of prediction markets and readies rule proposals, while tribes push for geofencing and other controls that would reinforce compact rights, age limits, and on-reservation authority.