Overview
- King County Superior Court Judge John McHale granted a preliminary injunction that will bar Kalshi from offering sports-related and other event contracts to Washington residents, a decision issued Monday that the court will finalize by August 5 after further filings.
- The court found Washington showed a likely risk of consumer harm from unlicensed gambling and ruled that the federal Commodity Exchange Act does not preempt the state’s gambling and consumer-protection laws at this stage.
- Kalshi said it will appeal the ruling and maintains its contracts fall under CFTC oversight, while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission continues to assert exclusive federal jurisdiction and is litigating in other states.
- The legal setback comes as the House Agriculture subcommittee prepares hearings on sports prediction markets and gaming industry groups are urging Congress to ban sports contracts on these platforms.
- Kalshi launched a Midterms Hub to aggregate live election odds and campaign data even as enforcement grows patchwork across states, a dynamic that raises questions about consumer protections, tax revenue, insider trading risks, and whether courts or lawmakers will set a single rule.