Massachusetts judge lets attorney general expand gaming suit against Kalshi
A Massachusetts judge allowed the state attorney general to file an expanded lawsuit against Kalshi on Tuesday, adding claims that the platform targeted users under 21 through social media and university marketing. The amended complaint alleges Kalshi offers illegal sports event contracts to users as young as 18. The ruling builds on a January preliminary injunction that already barred Kalshi from sports contracts in the state while the case proceeds.
Kalshi must now fight expanded claims in Massachusetts on top of active injunctions or suits in Michigan, Kentucky, New Mexico, and Illinois. The under-21 targeting allegation is a new tack: if it survives dismissal, other state attorneys general can copy the theory without waiting for federal preemption rulings. Each state court that accepts a gambling-law framing emboldens the next to sidestep CFTC registration entirely. Kalshi's legal budget and product roadmap must now account for parallel state fights that move faster than federal appeals. The platform's survival depends on affording every front simultaneously, not winning one clean federal ruling.
Massachusetts joins Michigan, Kentucky, New Mexico, and Illinois in active state-court litigation against Kalshi, making it the fifth state where the CFTC-registered platform must defend its sports event contracts against gambling-law claims outside federal preemption.