Maryland election official seeks state prosecutor probe of prediction markets
Maryland State Election Administrator Jared DeMarinis asked State Prosecutor Charlton T. Howard III to investigate prediction markets offering election outcome contracts on platforms including Kalshi and Polymarket. The July 24 request cites a state law prohibiting wagering on elections. Kalshi disputes that Maryland law applies to its platform. The probe targets whether these CFTC-registered venues comply with state election statutes.
Maryland's probe adds another front to Kalshi's state-by-state survival fight. The platform now faces active investigations or adverse rulings in multiple states while the Second Circuit appeal sits unresolved. For Polymarket, each new state action that challenges CFTC-registered election contracts previews its own exposure, since Maryland's theory does not hinge on a platform's federal status.
Traders holding election positions must price in the risk of sudden state enforcement voiding contracts they understood as federally backed. The platforms' geofencing teams must build state-specific election law screens without a unified national standard. Legal budgets multiply with each new prosecutor's office opened. The first criminal referral from any of these probes would raise the stakes from civil injunctions to individual liability, reshaping how platforms disclose jurisdictional risk to users before they trade.
Maryland joins Washington, Wisconsin, and New York in probing or blocking election prediction markets, deepening the state-by-state siege that Washington and Michigan courts have already escalated against Kalshi and Polymarket.