Maryland elections chief says state law bars election wagers on Kalshi and Polymarket
Maryland's elections chief has declared that state law bans election wagering on prediction markets including Kalshi and Polymarket. The statement follows reports that users on the two platforms have traded $1.1 million on Maryland elections, with heavy activity in races for governor and the 1st District. The chief's position adds Maryland to the growing number of states challenging the legality of CFTC-registered platforms' election contracts under state gambling statutes.
Maryland's stance gives state attorneys general another template to copy, even as Kalshi fights parallel suits in Louisiana, Missouri, and Utah. The Maryland announcement lands just after Ohio and Tennessee rejected Kalshi's federal preemption claims, and it arrives while the CFTC and DOJ are suing Utah on Kalshi's behalf. That federal cover has not stopped personal felony charges against Kalshi's co-founders Mansour and Lopes Lara in Utah.
For Polymarket and Robinhood, which absorbed Missouri orders without suing, each new state declaration sharpens the choice between fighting and settling. The Supreme Court looms larger as circuit splits deepen, with the NFL already urging justices to back state gambling authority over federal preemption. A Maryland suit would join existing state actions and tighten the noose on nationally available election contracts before any CFTC swap rule takes effect.
Maryland joins Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and Utah in challenging federally registered prediction market platforms, deepening the pattern of state gambling law collisions that Kalshi's federal preemption strategy has failed to stop.