Kalshi loses Sixth Circuit appeal as court lets Ohio enforce gambling laws
Kalshi has lost another appeal, with an appeals court ruling against the prediction market platform. The decision comes from the Sixth Circuit and lets Ohio enforce gambling laws against Kalshi's sports event contracts. Kalshi had argued that its CFTC registration preempts state gambling regulation. The ruling follows a similar Sixth Circuit loss for Tennessee and a recent Ninth Circuit defeat on tribal lands. Kalshi is now preparing a potential appeal to the Supreme Court.
Kalshi now faces enforcement in Ohio and Tennessee while defending parallel preemption suits in Connecticut and Washington. Its CFTC registration no longer blocks state attorneys general, so traders hold positions whose validity shifts at state borders. The Sixth Circuit's reasoning mirrors the Ninth Circuit's tribal-land template, giving every state a ready playbook.
Kalshi must split legal resources across four fronts instead of one clean federal fight. The Supreme Court is the only path to uniform rules, but cert consideration takes months. Each month of delay invites another state filing. The first platform to exhaust parallel defense resources will likely retreat state by state, fragmenting liquidity before any federal resolution arrives.
This is Kalshi's third appellate loss on preemption in under a week, after the Ninth Circuit's tribal-lands ruling and the Sixth Circuit's Ohio-Tennessee decision, each piercing its CFTC registration shield in a different jurisdiction and inviting copycat state suits.