Utah attorney general Derek Brown discusses Kalshi fight on podcast
Utah Attorney General Derek Brown appeared on the Deseret Voices podcast to explain his allegations against prediction market platform Kalshi. The episode addressed questions about who takes the opposite side of trades on the platform. The podcast appearance comes amid a broader legal fight between Kalshi and Utah that has touched multiple parts of the legal system. Kalshi faces a civil suit from Utah seeking up to $61.2 million, felony criminal charges against co-founders Mansour and Lopes Lara, and a separate CFTC-DOJ preemption lawsuit.
Brown's podcast appearance signals a new front in state-level messaging wars against federally registered prediction markets. State attorneys general are now treating these platforms as public enemies worthy of popular framing, not just legal briefs. For Kalshi, every Brown interview hardens the political narrative that its CFTC registration is a federal loophole enabling gambling.
The felony template against founders Mansour and Lopes Lara has already pushed DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fanatics to exit Utah entirely. Other platforms must now weigh whether federal preemption arguments survive contact with criminalized founders and populist prosecutor speeches. A rhetorical win in podcasts and press conferences builds public pressure that federal courts notice.
Utah's triple-layer assault on Kalshi — civil suit, felony charges, and podcast prosecution — joins the CFTC-DOJ preemption push as the template other state attorneys general in Ohio, Tennessee, and Louisiana are already copying.