Nevada has had enough of Kalshi, and a judge just made that official. Carson City District Court Judge Jason Woodbury signed a temporary restraining order on Friday, pulling Kalshi’s sports, election, and entertainment event contracts off the table in Nevada for 14 days.
For state gaming regulators, it was the win they had been pushing for, as it shows that Nevada’s licensing rules are not optional. “Kalshi has repeatedly stated that its operations are legal in 50 states, which is clearly not true,” said Mike Dreitzer, chairperson of Nevada’s Gaming Control Board. Dreitzer emphasized that Nevada prohibits unlicensed gambling, and the board has no plans to overlook this fact.
Federal Shield Falls Short
Kalshi had argued that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversees its contracts and states have no business stepping in. Judge Woodbury was not convinced by this. He wrote that the law does not clearly support federal control over this case, at least for now.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (a federal appeals court) denied Kalshi’s emergency motion for a stay on March 19, rejecting its bid to block Nevada from enforcing its regulations and allowing the state proceedings to move forward. This paved the way for a Nevada state court judge to issue a temporary restraining order on Friday, and the state court has scheduled an April 3 hearing on the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s motion for a preliminary injunction.
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At the core of the ruling is how Nevada classifies Kalshi’s contracts. Woodbury found they meet the definition of a “sports pool” under state law, and this is something Kalshi is not licensed to run. The Gaming Control Board had filed a lawsuit against the company last month on exactly this basis.
A Storm Brewing on Multiple Fronts
Nevada is not alone in going after Kalshi. Arizona took the sharpest swing yet earlier this week, hitting the company with criminal charges. State Attorney General Kris Mayes called it an illegal gambling operation. Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour fired back, calling the move a “total overstep.” Earlier, Massachusetts had blocked Kalshi from taking sports event contracts, but an appeal lifted that ban.
Bill Miller of the American Gaming Association supports the Nevada lawmakers, calling the restraining order a necessary step to protect regulated markets and the consumers who use them.
The numbers behind Kalshi tell their own story. When the company reportedly handled $871 million in Super Bowl event contracts in February, it caught the attention of federal lawmakers. Nevada may have landed the latest blow, but it seems the fight is just starting.
