California tribes ask Ninth Circuit to block Kalshi sports contracts on tribal land
Three California tribes argued July 10 before the Ninth Circuit to block Kalshi's sports event contracts on tribal lands. The appeal seeks to overturn a lower court ruling and restrict Kalshi's offerings within tribal boundaries if successful. A Ninth Circuit panel signaled openness to blocking both Kalshi and Robinhood from offering sports contracts on tribal land, with one judge saying Kalshi's contracts 'sound like a bet.' The dispute centers on whether Kalshi's CFTC-regulated sports markets infringe on tribal gaming exclusivity under federal Indian gaming laws.
A Ninth Circuit ruling for the tribes would carve tribal lands out of Kalshi's addressable market entirely, forcing geofencing across reservation boundaries. Robinhood faces identical exposure, since both platforms were named in the underlying appeal. The tribes' claim rests on federal Indian gaming law, not state gambling statutes, so a loss here would add a separate federal litigation front to Kalshi's already crowded state-by-state fight.
The panel's willingness to equate event contracts with betting signals skepticism toward the CFTC-license defense that Kalshi has deployed elsewhere. Each venue where tribal sovereignty blocks operators shrinks the unified national market Kalshi needs for institutional liquidity. A second tribal victory in this circuit would invite copycat suits from gaming tribes in other states.