Ohio argues Kalshi event contracts are illegal sports betting in major-questions brief
Ohio filed a new brief in its ongoing case against Kalshi on June 6, 2026, arguing that the platform's event contracts are not swaps and therefore constitute illegal sports betting under state law. The filing comes as Forbes published analysis on June 1 suggesting the major-questions doctrine could shift judicial focus in prediction market litigation toward whether certain event contracts are sports gambling rather than financial instruments. Courts have so far ruled preliminarily in Kalshi's favor. A DailyMotion clip from June 5 referenced political turmoil and legal battles around CFTC-regulated prediction markets, noting that sports betting operates under different rules.
Ohio persuades a court that Kalshi's contracts are sports gambling under the major-questions doctrine, Kalshi's swap-based registration framework collapses and every CFTC-registered exchange offering sports-adjacent event contracts faces immediate state enforcement exposure.
Ohio's major-questions argument joins New Mexico's state-court suit and Minnesota's felony ban as the third active state-level classification attack on Kalshi in under three days, widening the battlefield from federal preemption to direct sports-gambling reclassification.